View Fred Hutch HIV/AIDS scientific meeting June 18 – live online stream

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will host a scientific meeting, “HIV Cure Research in Seattle – the Underlying Science and Clinical Studies” to discuss the underlying science and clinical studies behind HIV cure research in Seattle. The meeting, presented in partnership with the defeatHIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory, will take place Tuesday, June 18, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.  A live online stream of the event will be available to the public.

The day will consist of lectures by Fred Hutch and defeatHIV scientists and industry partners working on an HIV cure therapy that closely mirrors the successful treatment of the "Berlin Patient" Timothy Ray Brown. German doctors cured Brown of both HIV and leukemia with bone marrow transplants from a donor who carried a rare gene that protects cells from the virus.

Now, Fred Hutch scientists are working to take one person's cure and bring it from one to many. Drs. Keith Jerome, of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, and Hans-Peter Kiem, of the Clinical Research Division, are leading defeatHIV efforts in developing genetic tools to provide HIV patients with the same resistance to protect him or her from the virus. If successful, these genetic tools may also permanently shut down the virus already in the body—offering a prospective cure for HIV infection.

Meeting presenters

Brown, originally from Seattle, currently serves as an advocate for HIV cure efforts performed by researchers and clinicians across the globe. He will speak during the meeting, which will also feature the following researchers from Fred Hutch and defeatHIV:

• Dr. Keith Jerome, VIDD and defeatHIV, will provide a welcome and introduction, followed by a defeatHIV program overview. He will also discuss HIV targeting.
• Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, Clinical Research and defeatHIV, will discuss how Brown was cured of HIV with stem cell transplantation. He will also discuss stem cell gene therapy for HIV/AIDS.
• Dr. Andy Scharenberg, Seattle Children's Research Institute and defeatHIV, will present "Expanding the Repertoire and Utility of Targeted Rare-Cutting Endonucleases."
• Dr. Alexander Astrakhan, Pregenen, will discuss "Hybrid Nucleases for Highly Efficient Generation of CCR5-disrupted T-cells."
• Dr. Winson Tang, a defeatHIV industry partner from Sangamo BioSciences, will present  "A Novel Gene Therapy Approach to HIV: Induction of Acquired CCR5 Deficiency with Zinc Finger Nuclease Modified Autologous CD4 T-cells (SB-728-T)."
• Dr. Jim Mullins, professor of microbiology and medicine at the University of Washington, will present "HIV Reservoirs."
• Dr. Ann Woolfrey, Clinical Research and defeatHIV, will present "Hematopoietic Cell Transplant: Platform for Purging the Latent HIV Reservoir."
• Dr. Julie McElrath, director of VIDD, will present "Immune Modulation as an Adjunct to Curative Therapies."

The target audience for this meeting includes HIV/AIDS primary care providers, oncologists, clinicians/researchers and anyone interested in learning about "The Cure Agenda." Join the forum and gain a better understanding of how each of us might help to make one man's cure a reality for millions of people living with HIV.

Reservations required by June 13

Refreshments and a light lunch buffet will be available during portions of the meeting. To reserve your space, contact info@defeatHIV.org or (206) 667-2300 by June 13. For disability accommodations, contact the Employee Service Center help desk at escmail@fhcrc.org or (206) 667-4700. Lunch is first-come, first-served based on RSVP.

Live video stream access

The presentation will also be available on the Web via live video stream. 

About defeatHIV

defeatHIV is one of three Martin Delaney Collaboratories funded in 2011 by the National Institutes of Health to develop curative HIV therapies. Based at Fred Hutch, defeatHIV is a consortium of world-renowned scientists—from UW, Seattle Children's, Beckman Research Institute City of Hope, Sangamo BioSciences and NIH—working toward the common goal of HIV eradication.

Hear Drs. Jerome and Kiem discuss defeatHIV and the "Berlin Patient" in this new video.

CFAR Curative Therapies for HIV Scientific Working Group, Pregenen and Sangamo BioSciences are co-sponsoring the scientific meeting with defeatHIV.

You can also learn more about Brown in this new video from defeatHIV. Based at Fred Hutch, defeatHIV is a consortium of world-renowned scientists—from UW, Seattle Children's, Beckman Research Institute City of Hope, Sangamo BioSciences and NIH—working toward the common goal of HIV eradication.