Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more
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AIDS

Emory HIV/AIDS experts lends voice to reach out

The latest CDC statistics on HIV/AIDS estimate more than 1.1 million persons in the United States are living with diagnosed or undiagnosed HIV/AIDS. HIV gradually attacks the immune system and causes AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection.

It can take years for a person infected with HIV to reach this stage. Having AIDS means that the virus has weakened the immune system to the point at which the body has a difficult time fighting infection. Early HIV diagnosis is vital, so people who are infected can fully benefit from available live-saving treatments.

David Malebranche, MD

David J. Malebranche, MD

This critical message is the foundation of a new campaign titled “Treatment is Power.” David J. Malebranche, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine and internist at Grady Memorial Hospital is an expert voice for the campaign by Gilead Sciences. Listen to Malebranche on a public service announcement (MP3).

Malebranche says opportunity is unique in reaching people living with HIV. It is geared toward reducing the stigma and fear associated with taking medications that slow down the virus and helps individuals realize the many quality of life improvements associated with early treatment.

As a nationally recognized speaker and advocate, the idea that “treatment is power” is not a new theme for Malebranche. Fostering a close working doctor-patient relationship is one Malebranche aggressively promotes at the Ponce Infectious Disease Center – a local AIDS clinic in downtown Atlanta, where he delivers comprehensive care to uninsured patients living with HIV/AIDS.

He says early treatment is an essential part of the fight against HIV.

From 2006-2008, Malebranche served on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS, which provides recommendations to the President and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regarding national and international HIV/AIDS programs and policies. He conducts research exploring the social, structural and cultural factors influencing sexual risk-taking and HIV testing practices among black men.

Posted on September 30, 2009 by admin in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Reality check for HIV vaccine design

HIV doesn’t have a brain and it doesn’t strategize.

But the way that the virus mutates and evades the immune system in the early part of an infection, you might think it did.

Emory Vaccine Center researcher Cynthia Derdeyn and her colleagues have a new paper in PLOS Pathogens that is a reality check for researchers designing possible HIV vaccines. The results come from a collaboration with the Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group. (Although the patients in this paper are from Zambia only.)

Red and green depict the parts of the HIV envelope protein that mutated in two patients (185F and 205F) in response to pressure from their immune systems. The rest of the envelope protein is blue.

Red and green depict the parts of the HIV envelope protein that mutated in two patients (185F and 205F) in response to pressure from their immune systems.

Recently there has been some excitement over the discovery of robust neutralizing antibodies in patients.

The bottom line, according to Derdeyn’s team: even if a vaccine succeeds in stimulating antibodies that can neutralize HIV, the virus is still going to mutate furiously and may escape those antibodies. To resist HIV, someone’s immune system may need to have several types of antibodies ready to go, their results suggest.

A companion paper in the same issue of PLOS Pathogens from South African scientists has similarly bracing results.

Posted on September 22, 2009 by Quinn Eastman in Immunology Leave a comment
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