The Campbell Foundation has awarded a $100,000 research grant to scientists at The Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) in Australia to support the development of a novel HIV immunotherapy aimed at overcoming the virus’s ability to mutate and evade the immune system. Led by Dr. Gabriel Duette, the project focuses on engineering CD8 T cells to target highly conserved regions of HIV identified using WIMR’s Immunoinformatics Analysis Pipeline (IMAP), a tool designed to pinpoint viral regions that remain stable across HIV variants.  Current HIV treatments effectively suppress the virus but cannot eliminate the dormant viral reservoir, requiring lifelong therapy. The WIMR team is developing a gene therapy approach that equips immune cells to recognize and attack the parts of HIV least able to change. Early findings suggest these conserved viral targets remain stable even within the hidden HIV reservoir and that individuals who naturally control HIV exhibit stronger immune responses against them. “This research could lead to a new kind of treatment where a person’s immune system keeps HIV under control without needing daily medications,” said Campbell Foundation Executive Director Ken Rapkin. If successful, the project could lay the groundwork for a first-in-class immunotherapy capable of providing long-term HIV control, while future development efforts will focus on creating scalable, broadly accessible approaches for clinical use