Research Toward HIV Cure

Curing HIV infection is a high priority of the NIH for HIV research. Unfortunately, providing HIV-infected individuals with sustained ART-free viral remission (or functional cure) and/or viral eradication (sterilizing, or classic, cure) is prevented by the capacity of HIV to persist in anatomic sanctuary sites that protect the virus from immune response and ART, even when the virus is undetectable in the circulation. ERC-CFAR investigators are investigating the mechanisms of viral latency and persistence, the development of animal and other surrogate models which predict viral remission or reactivation/rebound of latent virus, and innovative, evidence-based preclinical, translational, and clinical studies of cure interventions. Listed below are NIH-funded studies by ERC-CFAR Investigators researching strategies to cure HIV infection.