Better understanding HIV transmission through isolation and characteriszation of HIV from semen

Infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) remains one of the major infectious diseases in the world. More than three decades of research have still not resulted in an effective vaccine or microbicide that could prevent new HIV infection. One of the major hurdles is the lack of sufficient knowledge on the genetic and phenotypic nature of the actual infecting virus strain and a thorough understanding of the biology of sexual transmission. New advancements have enabled us to isolate virus from the male seminal compartment, an endeavor that was very unsuccessful until recently. These developments will allow us to characterize the genetics and phenotype (tropism, replication potential, sensitivity to inhibition) of the virus that is actually subject to transmission. With the proposed studies, we want to identify signature viruses that possess transmission capacity. The results from our work will have significant impact on current dogma’s in HIV vaccine and preventive drug design.