Patrick Jackson
University of Virginia, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Most new HIV infections acquired through sex are started by just a single viral variant out of the enormous swarm of variants present in the person transmitting it. That narrow "transmission bottleneck" means something about particular viruses makes them better at crossing tissue barriers and evading early immune responses, but exactly which viral traits are favored is still unclear.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
- Topics
Rev protein
Rev Response Element
transmission bottleneck
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2028
What they work on
- Test whether variation in Rev-RRE activity is selected during HIV sexual transmission, by measuring activity in viral quasispecies from longitudinal samples spanning acute to chronic infection in people who acquired HIV through different transmission routes.
- Determine whether the reported pattern of lower Rev-RRE activity in subtype C transmitted/founder viruses generalizes to other HIV subtypes and transmission contexts.
- Identify the molecular basis of Rev-RRE activity differences among primary HIV isolates by assessing the contributions of Env envelope protein activity, nuclear export of unspliced viral RNA, and Rev protein kinetics.
More about the research
Identifying them could point to interventions that block new infections rather than only treating established ones.
Why it matters
HIV treatment works, but new infections continue worldwide. If viruses that establish new infections are consistently selected for a particular level of Rev-RRE activity, this regulatory step becomes a candidate target for prophylaxis aimed at preventing transmission. Understanding what drives differences in Rev-RRE function may also inform work on viral persistence and reactivation from latency, central obstacles to curing HIV.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Masahiro Yamashita
Columbia University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Develop a high-throughput neutralization assay in which each HIV envelope (Env) variant in a lentiviral system carries a unique DNA barcode, allowing simultaneous tracking of hundreds of variants against ten broadly neutralizing antibodies targeting five gp120 sites.
Hillel Haim
University of Iowa, IA·Microbiology & Immunology
Build a deep mutational scanning system using replication-defective HIV-1 to measure, safely and at high throughput, how every amino acid substitution at each site of the capsid protein affects viral fitness and resistance to the capsid inhibitor lenacapavir.
Angus C Wilson
New York University, NY·Microbiology & Immunology
Identify the viral reactivation signature that neurons recognize when latent HSV-1 reawakens, using cultured primary neurons as a model of latency and reactivation together with single-cell technologies.
The school
University of Virginia: 43 labs on PI Pages, $814M a year on research, 413 research doctorates a year.
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