Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remains a massive global health issue.

As of 2022, 39 million people are living with HIV, and another 40 million have died of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and opportunistic diseases that thrive in a compromised immune system. Fortunately, we have access to combination antiretroviral therapy, which targets multiple steps of the HIV life cycle to suppress replicating virus to undetectable levels, preventing advancement to AIDS.

However, antiretroviral therapy is not a cure.

Though it successfully targets replicating virus, antiretroviral therapy is unable to target stable reservoirs of latently infected cells, which provide opportunities for viral rebound and persist in the host despite long-term antiretroviral therapy treatment. As such, for millions living with HIV, ART must therefore be taken daily for life to ensure HIV remains suppressed. To further complicate the issue, additional problems with current antiretroviral therapies include  antiviral drug resistance, side effects, limited global availability, ongoing immune activation and immunological dysfunction, and continued social stigma in people with HIV.

Hence, there remains a compelling unmet need to develop a cure for HIV to not only permanently prevent rebound from occurring, but also remove the requirement for long-term ART.

To achieve this critical goal, we hope to answer the following questions in the Marsden lab:

1) Where and how does HIV hide during latency?

2) How can HIV be safely cleared from latently infected cells?