Human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) is the etiologic cause of the infectious AIDS disease. According the WHO, in 2016 35 million people were infected with the virus and 1.2 million people died from AIDS. The current antiretroviral treatment is efficient in keeping low levels of viremia, however the virus is not completely eliminated by this treatment and some levels persist through latency and low-level replication. It is important therefore to investigate alternative strategies to eliminate HIV-1.
A small fraction of HIV-1 infected individuals produce neutralizing antibodies that show potent neutralizing activity against a broad range of different HIV-1 isolates. Our goal is to characterize new broadly anti-HIV-1 antibodies from infected patients with the aim of identifying new antibody-base therapeutics and new potential vaccine targets.