The Wistar Institute Launches HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center
July 17 2024 - 1:02PM
UK Regulatory
The Wistar Institute Launches HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center
Center Headquartered at New Wistar North
Campus
PHILADELPHIA, PA, July 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Wistar
Institute — building on its history of leading advances in human
health as the nation’s first nonprofit biomedical research
institute — is creating a new HIV Cure and Viral Diseases
Center, made possible by a $24 million institutional
investment from Wistar. The HIV Cure and Viral Diseases
Center will advance Wistar’s dedication to cure research
to meet the worldwide challenge of HIV. The goal is to move beyond
current life-long treatments to eradicate the virus. The Center
marshals world-class scientific talent, research expertise, and
community support to bring together the very best in foundational
bench to bedside biomedical research to discover a cure for HIV and
possibly a host of viral threats.
HIV’s capacity to mutate and evade immune responses has been a
challenge to scientists, and the same challenge exists for many
other viruses. In pursuing a mission to find an HIV cure, key
insights to overcoming other persistent viral infections will
emerge, which could lead to further cures as investments in HIV
research have advanced other areas of research such as the
Hepatitis C cure strategy.
When announcing the Center to last night's audience at the
Jonathan Lax Memorial Lecture, Wistar president and CEO,
Dario Altieri, M.D., spoke of the historic
opportunity the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center
presents for biomedical research:
“Wistar has always prioritized innovation and has provided
leadership to advance solutions for global health priorities; this
new Center, in combination with efforts already underway in our
Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center, positions
Wistar with a unique opportunity to accelerate innovative ideas for
both an HIV cure and a vaccine — both major global health
priorities.”
More than 39 million people around the world live with HIV, and
without a cure, they must depend on life-long medications.
Continued access to therapy can be a limitation for many due to
significant global healthcare disparities, which makes a cure — not
just treatment — all the more important. Thanks to researchers at
Wistar and around the world and increased priority by funders to
advance a cure, scientific efforts are moving ever closer to
success; new technologies and strategies continue being refined and
tested; and clinical trials move forward.
The HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center will
capitalize on this significant global momentum for cure-directed
research with a robust investment to not only discover cure
strategies, but prioritize those with potential for global
deployment. In addition to current principal investigators already
working on viral cures at Wistar, four to six additional principal
investigators will be recruited to the new Center. Combining
expertise in virology & immunology and together with industry
and community partners, the Center will 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 international collaborations and capacity
building to ensure cure-directed efforts include diverse
researchers and persons living with HIV around the world.
Wistar’s HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center is
a historic, and timely undertaking also expanding Wistar beyond its
signature campus at 3601 Spruce Street for the first time in its
130+year history. The Center will be headquartered at a new Wistar
North campus with more than 25,000 square feet dedicated to
laboratory and office space.
Building upon the tremendous successes of Wistar’s HIV Research
Program to launch the Center, Wistar’s Luis Montaner,
D.V.M., D.Phil. — Herbert Kean, M.D., Family Professor and
co-principal investigator of the BEAT-HIV Delaney Collaboratory —
will lead the HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center
as founding director and newly appointed executive vice president
of the Wistar Institute. As one of the Institute’s longest-serving
faculty members and an established leader in the field of HIV cure
research, Dr. Montaner brings decades of expertise to his
leadership of the Center.
“I am confident we will advance towards an HIV cure in my
lifetime, and I am honored to have the privilege of leading this
bold expansion of The Wistar Institute,” said Dr. Montaner. “The
HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center builds on Wistar’s history of
strength in virology, our international collaborative networks, and
our partnerships with industry and communities of persons living
with HIV. With the launch of this Center, Wistar makes a clear and
bold statement to the world that the time to get us to an HIV cure
is now.”
ABOUT THE WISTAR INSTITUTE
The Wistar Institute is the nation’s first independent nonprofit
institution devoted exclusively to foundational biomedical research
and training. Since 1972, the Institute has held National Cancer
Institute (NCI)-designated Cancer Center status. Through a culture
and commitment to biomedical collaboration and innovation, Wistar
science leads to breakthrough early-stage discoveries and life
science sector start-ups. Wistar scientists are dedicated to
solving some of the world’s most challenging problems in the field
of cancer and immunology, advancing human health through
early-stage discovery and training the next generation of
biomedical researchers. wistar.org.