Grant: Operating Grant

HIV/AIDS is a major public health threat to Ontario, with a 67% increase in infections in the last ten years. Current AIDS treatments are highly toxic and are rapidly developing drug resistance, thus necessitating an urgent need for the development of radically different therapeutics than those currently used. One strategy would be to harness the power of our immune system. During HIV infection, our body has developed multiple lines of defenses against the virus. In turn, HIV has developed intricate countermeasures to survive. Currently, the tug-of-war between host and virus is poorly understood from an atomic-level perspective. High-resolution atomic structures of macromolecular assemblies at the host-pathogen interface are needed to provide a blueprint into the development of novel HIV/AIDS treatments. However, few structures of these innate immune factors and HIV proteins have been solved due to challenges in producing these proteins in sufficient quantities and stability for structural work. This work aims to build on our recent structural and biochemical successes on viral and innate immune proteins to achieve a comprehensive structural understanding of the HIV-host interactions that could ultimately lead to the design of new classes of anti-retroviral drugs to benefit HIV-infected patients in Canada and the world.