AIDS 2024 recap

The HIV.gov blog includes highlights and recaps from AIDS 2024, the 25th International Conference held in Munich, Germany last month. If you attended AIDS 2024, please send details of your presentations and any photos you took to Lizzy Knippler for inclusion in an upcoming newsletter.

News from the CFAR

Call for abstracts for 20th Annual CFAR Fall Scientific Retreat - due August 21st

All Duke pre- and post-doctoral trainees, and junior faculty conducting research related to HIV/AIDS, or to any human pathogen where the methods, concepts or findings provide novel insights for AIDS-related research, are encouraged to submit an abstract for a poster and infographic presentation at the 20th Annual CFAR Fall Scientific Retreat.

This is an opportunity to share your research design, progress, and new insights with others in the Duke University community and community members from the CFAR’s D3C (Duke Collaborative Community Council). Final results are not required, and ‘works in progress’ and posters that have been recently presented at other meetings are welcome. In addition to a poster, each investigator is also required to create an infographic/flyer of their work to communicate key messages from the poster to a broad audience in lay language.

Each submitted abstract should be written for a multi-disciplinary audience, including community members, and will be presented in the following format: Background, Methods, Results, Impact, and Conclusion. (See a copy of the submission form) Submitted abstracts will be judged competitively, and the highest scoring abstracts will be selected to give an in-person, 5 minute “Flash Talk” in the style of a TED Talk.

Key dates

• August 21, 2024 - Abstracts due (upload here)
• August 26, 2024 - Abstracts selected for Flash Talks will be communicated
• September 16, 2024 - PDF versions of posters and infographics due
• September 19, 2024 - CFAR Retreat

Read the Call for Abstracts.

Duke Media Video & Article: A Trial HIV Vaccine Triggered Elusive and Essential Antibodies in Humans

A Duke Media article highlights recent findings from CFAR investigators at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute:

An HIV vaccine candidate developed at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute triggered low levels of an elusive type of broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies among a small group of people enrolled in a 2019 clinical trial. The finding, reported May 17 in the journal Cell, not only provides proof that a vaccine can elicit these antibodies to fight diverse strains of HIV, but that it can also initiate the process within weeks, setting in motion an essential immune response. 

The vaccine candidate targets an area on the HIV-1 outer envelope called the membrane proximal external region (MPER), which remains stable even as the virus mutates. Antibodies against this stable region in the HIV outer coat can block infection by many different circulating strains of HIV.

“This work is a major step forward as it shows the feasibility of inducing antibodies with immunizations that neutralize the most difficult strains of HIV,” said senior author Barton F. Haynes, M.D., director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI). “Our next steps are to induce more potent neutralizing antibodies against other sites on HIV to prevent virus escape. We are not there yet, but the way forward is now much clearer.”

The research team analyzed data from a phase 1 clinical trial of a vaccine candidate developed by Haynes and S. Munir Alam, Ph.D., at DHVI. Twenty healthy people without HIV enrolled in the trial. Fifteen participants received two of four planned doses of the investigational vaccine, and five received three doses. After just two immunizations, the vaccine had a 95% serum response rate and a 100% blood CD4+ T-cell response rate -- two key measurements that demonstrated strong immune activation. Most of the serum responses mapped to the portion of the virus targeted by the vaccine. Importantly, broadly neutralizing antibodies were induced after just two doses.

“To get a broadly neutralizing antibody, a series of events needs to happen, and it typically takes several years post-infection,” said lead author Wilton Williams, Ph.D., associate professor in Duke’s Department of Surgery and member of DHVI. “The challenge has always been to recreate the necessary events in a shorter space of time using a vaccine. It was very exciting to see that, with this vaccine molecule, we could actually get neutralizing antibodies to emerge within weeks.”

Read the full article.

The CFAR welcomes Dr. Kshitij Wagh!

The Duke Human Vaccine Institute is pleased to announce that Kshitij Wagh, PhD, has been recruited to a faculty position in the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI), effective May 15, 2024.

Wagh has over 15 years of research experience in theoretical and computational biology. He has published more than 50 articles, including more than a dozen in high impact journals like Cell, Science, Science Translational Medicine, Cell Host and Microbe, Science Immunology, Annual Reviews of Immunology, and PNAS. 

“We are delighted about the addition of Dr. Kshitij Wagh to DHVI faculty,” said Kevin Wiehe, PhD, director of computational biology at DHVI. “Kshitij has a unique expertise in using computational approaches for understanding virus evolution. He has been instrumental in developing vaccine design strategies that are informed by the insights gained from studying virus evolution. His addition to our computational team promises to accelerate our efforts in developing an HIV vaccine and a pan-coronavirus vaccine, and we are excited about the innovative contributions he will bring to DHVI.”

Wagh has had collaborations with several Duke researchers for the last ten years as part of four NIH-funded grants and one Gates Foundation-funded grant. He is also an investigator with the Duke Center for HIV Structural Biology (DCHSB). He is particularly interested in understanding viral evolution and diversity with the goal of using these to rationally design cross-reactive antibody vaccines against high-diversity viruses such as HIV, Coronaviruses, Influenza, and Filoviruses.

Wagh received his B.Tech in engineering physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He completed his PhD at Rutgers University New Brunswick and began his postdoctoral training with Bette Korber, PhD, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in theoretical biology and biophysics.

Please join us in welcoming Kshitij to Duke and the CFAR.

Nominations due August 16th for 2024 Outstanding Leadership in Scientific Mentoring Award

In partnership with the Duke SOM and the Duke CFAR, the long-standing NIH T32 Duke Interdisciplinary Research Training Program HIV/AIDS (IRTPA) has recognized the outstanding and important leadership role of early career investigators in: Generating a scientifically rigorous and inclusive environment to mentor more junior scientists and colleagues and Supporting the innovation of their own research to advance scientific knowledge to improve human health. Please submit your nomination for the 2024 Outstanding Leadership in Scientific Mentoring Award by August 16, 2024.

Submit a nomination form.

OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival

August 8-15, 2024 | Carolina Theatre, Durham, NC

The OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival is the second largest LGBTQ+ film festival in the Southeast, attracting thousands of patrons to downtown Durham every year since 1995. Since beginning in 1995 as “A Salute to Pride” and running from 1996-2019 as the North Carolina Gay + Lesbian Film Festival, this event has always featured a diverse array of shorts, documentaries and feature films. OUTSOUTH Queer Film Festival celebrates a worldwide glimpse of today’s LGBTQ+ life, helps bring the community together and features entertaining and sophisticated films and filmmaking.

Learn more and buy tickets.

NIAID Virtual Workshop: B Cell Immune Repertoire Analysis for HIV Vaccines

Tuesday, August 13, 2024 | 10am-5pm ET | Virtual

We’re at the stage in HIV vaccine development where we know that successful immunogens will need to induce potent broad neutralizing antibodies to contemporary circulating viral strains. The two major strategies for immunogen design are: 1) germline B cell targeting through structure and/or epitope-based designs, and 2) mutation-guided B cell lineage designs. To select the most promising regimens, knowledge of bNAb interactions with envelope epitopes and their B cell clonal lineage development are key elements of the B cell response assessment workflow. Epitope-specific memory B cells binding specific Env are sorted by flow cytometry, and the presence and expansion of B cells with bNAb signatures (e.g., VRC01-class) assessed by paired antibody heavy and light chain sequences. These sequences can then be expressed to generate monoclonal antibodies for further characterization. In addition, the functional activity of the polyclonal humoral response as well as memory B cell or plasma cell-derived antibodies (monoclonal) can be evaluated for antigenic binding, neutralization, and other effector functions. EMPEM and biophysical analyses can elucidate vaccine-induced polyclonal serum antibodies specificities, and single B cell secreted antibody interactions with Env can facilitate decision-making for vaccine candidate selection in future studies. Weighing progress and achieving success with bNAb-inducing vaccine regimens in clinical trials will rely on efficient, near real-time molecular, functional, and structural analyses of B cell and antibody responses.

The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the technologies and methodologies employed to generate the necessary data in this complex arena and identify gaps in the workflow as we move forward.

Register for the workshop.

Inter-CFAR Transgender Health Working Group Panel: Intersection of Transgender Research and policy

Thursday, September 5, 2024 | 3:30-5 pm ET | Zoom

Please join the inter CFAR Transgender Health Working Group and invited panelists as they discuss and address both how to use research to inform policy and to conduct research with trans communities in challenging policy environments. Registration is required.

Register for the panel.

Online Seminar: Reducing HIV Stigma through Appropriate Language in Scientific Communications

Wednesday, September 18, 2024 | 11am ET | Zoom

What's in Store:

🎤 Presentations by HOPE Community members on language use and HIV stigma.

📊 Summary of results from Part 1 of the workshop.

🗣️ Panel discussion on the importance of language choice in research communications.

🔍 Informed guidance on engaging with communities through language in research.

Register for the panel.

Register by August 31st for the 28th West Coast Retrovirus Meeting

October 3-5, 2024 | Palm Springs, CA

Please join us this fall for the 28th West Coast Retrovirus Meeting in Palm Springs, California! This workshop-style meeting recognizes historical achievements and milestones in the field of retrovirology, while providing a forum to discuss new and unpublished information across relevant areas including antiviral drug development, viral evolution, structural virology and virus-host interactions. Invited speakers include the Duke CFAR's very own Priyamvada Acharya.

To attend the meeting, please register by August 31, 2024. After August 31, we will continue to accept registrations until the meeting is fully subscribed. The abstract deadline is September 1 for poster presentations.

Learn more and register.

Register by September 10th for the Inter-CFAR Faith & Spirituality Research Collaborative National Meeting

October 21-22, 2024 | Nashville, TN

Registration is open for a national meeting focused on exploring the opportunities in research at the intersection of Faith, Spirituality, and HIV to foster new collaborations toward ending the HIV epidemic. Bringing together those who have experience with faith communities and have interest in becoming engaged with implementation science research, and investigators involved in HIV implementation science. Please register by September 10.

Register for the meeting.

Apply by August 30th for the Annual Mentoring the Mentors Workshop for HIV Researchers

October 22-23, 2024 | San Francisco, CA

Investigators interested in attending the workshop are asked to complete the Registration Form. The application process for participation in the workshop will close on Friday, August 30, 2024 (scholarship deadline August 21, 2024). Registrants accepted to participate in the workshop will be notified by email the week of September 9, 2024.

The two-day workshop is an intensive and interactive meeting designed to provide faculty in HIV research with the tools for more effective mentoring, especially of mentees of diversity (defined mainly as those from underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities).

Scholarships

We anticipate that we will award a number of travel and lodging scholarships to support airfare/hotel for selected applicants. Learn more about scholarship priority and application process. Scholarship applications/registration are due by August 21, 2024. 

Inter-CFAR URM in HIV Research Meeting

We are also hosting the 3rd annual Inter-CFAR Meeting for CFAR-affiliated Underrepresented Minorities in HIV Research on the Thursday and Friday of that week (October 24th and 25th). This facilitated strategy meeting will work to build off findings from the first and second Inter-CFAR URM meetings held in 2022 and 2023 and help build new research collaborations in line with key HIV research needs and gaps. Prior attendees are encouraged to come.

Learn more and apply.

Applications due September 15th for the IDA Symposium & Flow Cytometry Workshop

African Flow Cytometry Workshop:

January 27-February 1, 2025 | Cape Town, South Africa

Infectious Diseases in Africa Symposium:

February 3-7, 2025 | Stellenbosch, South Africa

Information

• Interested individuals may apply to attend the IDA Symposium and/or the Flow Cytometry Workshop
• Applicants must be working in African countries to be eligible
• Participants will be selected based on the scientific merit of their submitted abstracts
• Selected participants will be awarded a full scholarship to attend (travel and accommodation)
• Selected participants are required to complete an Immunology Pre-Course on www.immunopaedia.org.za

Important Dates

• Abstract submission deadline: 15 September 2024
• Notification of awards: 15 October 2024
• Immunopaedia Pre-Course: 1 December 2024 – 21 January 2025
• Flow Cytometry Workshop: 27 January – 1 February 2025
• 12th IDA Symposium: 3 – 7 February 2025

Learn more and apply.

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