The RID HIV Community Advisory Board presents the Timothy Ray Brown Community Cure Symposium on the latest in HIV cure research, taking place Sunday, October 9 from 3 to 6 pm Pacific time. This will be a hybrid program: in-person at the Palm Springs Hyatt in downtown Palm Springs, and virtually on Zoom. The program will feature a tribute to Timothy Ray Brown--the first person cured of HIV from his partner Tim Hoeffgen, and from friend and RID researcher Nikki Klatt, updates on HIV cure research from RID collaboratory researchers, and a keynote presentation from "London Patient" Adam Castillejo--the second person cured of HIV. Chapters 0:00:00 - Welcome: RID HIV co-chairs Andy Kaytes & Lisa Diane White 0:22:05 - Tributes to Timothy Ray Brown 0:52:03 - RID Collaboratory Research Agenda 1:59:00 - "London Patient" Adam Castillejo & Vicente Planelles

Members of the RID-HIV Collaboratory met via Zoom for a presentation by Paula Cannon, Ph.D., on "Reprogramming B cells to make better antibodies against HIV." The RID-HIV Collaboratory brings together leading university scientists from multiple academic institutions. The quarterly webinar was moderated by Jeff Taylor, Executive Director of HIV + Aging Research Project | PS, based in Palm Springs, California, and is presented here in its entirety. Presenter Paula Cannon, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, where she leads a research team that studies viruses, stem cells and gene therapy. She obtained her PhD from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and received postdoctoral training as an HIV scientist at both Oxford and Harvard universities. Although HIV remains the main focus of her work, she also studies highly pathogenic hemorrhagic fever viruses, including Ebola and Lassa fever viruses. Cannon has a long-standing interest in the development of gene therapy as a clinical approach to treating HIV infection, and her recent work in this area is aimed at disrupting the viral co-receptor, CCR5, using zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs). This approach is being evaluated in human hematopoietic stem cells to address whether such a therapy could result in a "functional cure" for AIDS patients. Cannon’s research is funded by both the National Institutes of Health and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. As reported on the USC website in September 2020, "An HIV research program led by scientists at USC and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle has received a five-year, $14.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The team is advancing a gene therapy approach to control the virus without the need for daily medicines." HIV + Aging Research Project | PS seeks “to improve the lives of the large and growing population of long-term HIV and AIDS survivors by studying the impacts of long-term HIV disease and its treatments on the natural aging process.” For more information, visit www.HARP-PS.org

The Reversing Immune Dysfunction for HIV-1 Eradication (RID HIV) Collaboratory Community Advisory Board is pleased to announce its first quarterly community webinar on Monday, January 17 at 8am PT/11am ET/5pm CET with University of Minnesota researcher Nikki Klatt, PhD, who will discuss her innovative research on the role of the microbiome in HIV cure research. You can download the slides from the link : https://30363e0c-dd8a-4949-93aaa493a3359348.usrfiles.com/ugd/30363e_9ee7c6ed89ac4eeaa07ac82d1ffec23d.pptx

Recording from the first session of the gene therapy for HIV cure webinar series. This session offers a review of the basics about gene therapy by Dr. Jennifer Adair.