HIV Vaccines and Cure

Dr. Linqi Zhang is a professor of Department of Basic Medical Sciences, and the director of Comprehensive AIDS Research Center, Tsinghua University. He is also an adjunct professor of Peking Union Medical College, China. Prof. Zhang was the Chief Scientist for the National Key Basic Research Projects of China “HIV Biology and its Immune Responses”. His research focuses on pathogenesis of HIV-1 and vaccine development against HIV-1. He has published more than 100 research articles on international journals in this field.Dr. Sharon Lewin is a professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne and the inaugural director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture of the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is a consultant physician at the Alfred Hospital and a practitioner fellow funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia. Prof. Lewin’s research focuses on understanding how HIV persists on antiretroviral therapy, developing early clinical trials to achieve a cure for HIV and understanding how HIV interacts with other viruses such as hepatitis B virus. She has published more than 250 research articles in these fields.

• HIV Vaccine Efficacy Trials: RV144 and beyond.- HIV T-cell vaccines.- HIV broadly neutralizing antibodies: VRC01 and beyond.- Structural features of broadly neutralizing antibodies and rational design of vaccine.- Monkey models and HIV vaccine research.- Treatment of HIV for the Prevention of Transmission in Discordant Couples and at the Population Level.- HIV persistence on antiretroviral therapy and barriers to a cure.- The molecular biology of HIV latency.- Cellular determinants of HIV persistence on antiretroviral therapy.- In Vitro and In Vivo Models of HIV Latency.- Measuring HIV persistence on antiretroviral therapy.- Clinical interventions in HIV cure research