Regenerative Medicine for the Durable Remission of HIV, Analytical Testing Infrastructure

We are developing a one-time treatment for durable remission of HIV, after which patients will no longer need to take traditional antiretroviral medications. This treatment is a regenerative medicine therapy of autologous HIV-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells that equips a patient's own T cells with the ability to seek out and destroy HIV-producing cells in a "hidden" viral reservoir located in B cell follicles, a hiding spot in the immune system where viral replication can occur unabated. Here, we propose to develop crucial infrastructure that will enable us to conduct analytical testing in-house in a GLP environment, rather than outsourcing out of state. We request matching funds for a flow cytometer and a qPCR machine to analyze CAR-T cells and to assess viral loads for an IND-enabling primate study to assess the safety and efficacy of our product.