A California biopharmaceutical company said Monday it is distributing $7.5 million in grant money to support five HIV cure research initiatives, including at UMass Medical School.
Abraham Brass, conducting research into HIV-1 latency factors, was named as one recipient of the grant money from Gilead Sciences, Inc.Â
The money will be used by Brass and his researchers for a genome editing tool to help them research how HIV-1 becomes active in the body.
Gilead Sciences did not detail the amount granted to UMass Medical School.
In a statement, Brass said anti-viral therapy blocks viral replication and presents the destruction of host immune cells. However, latent HIV-1 can re-emerge if that therapy is stopped.
“Our goal is to find host factors which are critical for this reactivation,” he said. “These efforts will improve our understanding of viral latency and may help to identify a means to cure HIV-1 infection.”
