You are here
News
July 2, 2020
LTC(P) Julie Ake Named New Director of MHRP
We are pleased to announce that LTC(P) Julie Ake has been selected as the next Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), effective June 30. LTC(P) Ake has been with MHRP at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research since 2010 and has served as the Principal Deputy Director for MHRP the last three years. Most recently, she has also been serving as WRAIR’s Deputy Principal for...
May 27, 2020
DREAMS Helps One Couple Find a Brighter Future
Mohammed Said is not hesitant to talk about his past as a drug addict and trafficker. Soft spoken and articulate, he cheerfully smiles as he narrates his recovery journey and how he met Rehema, the girl of his dreams.
Now 36, Mohammed was only 14 when he was introduced to a life of smuggling and dealing drugs. It was a dream come true when his parents agreed to let him travel outside...
February 6, 2020
MHRP Study Defining HIV Eclipse Phase Allows for More Accurate Estimate of Infection Timing
A new MHRP study shows the eclipse phase between HIV infection and earliest diagnosis via RNA testing lasted about a week, based on molecular dating and viral load growth rates obtained from one of its acute infection cohorts. The results were published this week in PLOS Pathogens.
“Individuals living with HIV rarely know when they became infected, but precise infection timing would...
January 14, 2020
New Study Reveals How Specialized Antimicrobial Human T Cells Respond in Acute HIV Infection
A new study led by MHRP has shown that a subset of T cells called mucosa-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells respond dynamically during acute HIV, and the functionality of these cells changes as infection progresses to become more innate-like. Findings were published today in Nature Communications.
MAIT cells are found abundantly in mucosal tissues, blood and the liver. MAIT cells...
December 23, 2019
MHRP's Top Highlights of 2019
MHRP is counting down the top five program highlights of the year in the areas of HIV vaccine development, cure research and global health promotion. Check back each day as we count down to number one:
MHRP’s partner sites in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have enrolled more than 65,000 young women in PEPFAR’s DREAMS public-partnership initiatives. This program aims to keep them...
December 2, 2019
World AIDS Day Event Highlights DoD Contributions to Fight the HIV Pandemic
The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) hosted a World AIDS Day event Tuesday highlighting advances in DoD-led HIV research and celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Army-led RV144 HIV vaccine study.
MHRP headed the RV144 “Thai study,” the first-ever – and only to-date – clinical trial to demonstrate an HIV vaccine regimen was safe and modestly effective in preventing HIV...
August 28, 2019
New Sequencing Study Provides Insight into HIV Vaccine Protection
In a new study, scientists led by MHRP identified a transcriptional signature in B cells associated with protection from SIV or HIV infection in five independent trials of HIV-1 vaccine candidates. The gene expression signature was found to correlate with protection in the only human HIV vaccine trial that previously showed modest efficacy, RV144. Results from the study were published...
July 23, 2019
US Army and partners to launch HIV vaccine efficacy trial in the Americas and Europe
The U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC) is part of a global partnership preparing to launch Mosaico, the first large-scale Phase 3 efficacy study of an investigational mosaic-based HIV-1 preventive vaccine. This study was announced by partners last week and further details about the partnership and the study have been provided at the 10th IAS Conference on HIV Science...
July 19, 2019
MHRP Scientists and Collaborators Presenting at IAS 2019
MHRP and collaborators will present the following abstracts at the IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2019) taking place July 21-24 in Mexico City (bolded names are MHRP researchers):
Julie Ake (oral abstract session co-chair), HIV vaccines: Light at the end of the tunnel?
Hiroshi Takata*, "Early ART initiation in acute HIV infection generates long-lived memory HIV-specific CD8+ ...
May 15, 2019
HIV Vaccine Awareness Day 2019
For decades, volunteers, community members, health professionals and scientists have worked to fill a toolbox with methods to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, driving down incidence of new infections and increasing the life span and quality of people living with HIV. With advancements in antiretroviral therapies and biomedical prevention options like PrEP, and other exciting innovations like long-...