Keith Jerome, MD, PhD Professor, Head of Virology Division Director, Molecular Virology Laboratory Dept of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington.

Persistent viruses, such as herpes simplex (HSV), hepatitis B (HBV), and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) remain serious causes of human suffering and death. After initial infection, these viruses establish latency or stable persistence in long-lived cells. Current antivirals can suppress viral replication, but they do not eliminate the persistent viral forms, which serve as the source for viral reactivation once treatment is stopped. To address the need for novel therapeutic approaches to cure these infections, we have evaluated the use of gene-editing endonucleases to directly target persistent virus in vivo. Our experience supports continued efforts toward gene editing as an antiviral strategy, emphasizes the importance of efficient delivery for in vivo gene editing applications, and should encourage workers in the field to appreciate the full diversity of available gene-editing nucleases.

Keith Jerome, MD, PhD delivers a talk to the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutch on January, 29th, 2019.

Dr. Keith Jerome delivers a talk on Gene Therapy at the Regulation of Clinical Research Related to HIV Cure conference in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Coombs is a Professor of Laboratory Medicine & Medicine at the UW. He is medical director of the UW Medicine Roosevelt Virology/HIV Clinic and Chief of Service for Laboratory Medicine, Harborview Medical Center and is Principal Investigator for the NIH/NIAID/DAIDS AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Laboratory Center. Dr. Coombs’ main research interests include the role or urogenital HIV-shedding in the sexual transmission of HIV-1 and the laboratory monitoring of HIV-1 for support of ACTG clinical trials. He has had a leadership role in the development of domestic and international HIV-1 virology laboratories and quality assurance programs for HIV-1 clinical trials since the ACTG began in 1988.

Stephen J. Polyak, PhD, Research Associate Professor, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington presentation.

HIV continues to be the epidemic of our lifetime. Even today, 2 million new infections occur worldwide and there are over 50,000 new cases a year in the US. Developing an HIV vaccine has been a scientific challenge, but new technologies and approaches are leading to guarded optimism about achieving this.

Chronic viral infections have plagued humanity for millennia. Now infections such as HIV, hepatitis B virus, herpes simplex and HPV are being targeted by new approaches that offer the prospect of their cure.

UW Virology Research Scientist, Ruth Hall Sedlak’s, presentation given at the 9th Annual International Conference in Boston about HHV-6 & 7 in November, 2015