The Wistar Institute recently celebrated a ribbon cutting for the opening of its new HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center.
The vision for the center is to uncover the fundamental science that powers tomorrow’s cures for HIV and other viral diseases.
The belief is that revealing how viruses work and how the immune system responds, scientists can identify the targets for life-changing therapies.
Located at 3675 Market Street, the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center is the culmination of Center director Dr. Luis Montaner’s nearly decade-long tenure leading the BEAT-HIV Delaney Collaboratory.
Through the Collaboratory, he built a “runway” for cure research that, through this Center, he can expand around molecular virology, bioinformatics, preclinical immunotherapy, and other HIV advances.
“I am confident we will advance towards an HIV cure in my lifetime,” said Dr. Luis Montaner, the center’s founding director and executive vice president of the Wistar Institute. “With the launch of this center, Wistar makes a clear and bold statement that the time to get us to an HIV cure is now.”
Scientists at the Center follow three concurrent aims:
- integrate multi-pronged clinical, virus-fighting methods that mimic and enhance the natural strengths of the human immune system;
- advance successes in personalized medicine to create tailored cure strategies for individual patients and patient groups;
- expand collaborations and capacity-building to ensure cure-directed efforts include researchers and persons living with HIV around the world.
Read more about the Wistar Institute’s new HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center at Wistar Institute.
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