About This Project

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Although dramatic advances have been made in the treatment of HIV disease, these therapies are expensive, difficult to take for a lifetime, and not available to all. More importantly, even in cases where the therapies are available and can be taken, the virus persists - often leading to a shorter life and a multiple of illnesses. We wish to solve this set of problems by discovering and disseminating - all over the world and to all in need - medications that are safe, affordable, and able to eradicate HIV from the body.

Through a multidisciplinary collaborative approach and a non-profit organization (TCAP), we will work to put HIV disease into remission – allowing people who have been infected to live longer lives without lifelong therapy. We imagine that this can occur by preventing further replication of the virus (e.g., with drugs that block inflammation) and by removing cells in which it resides (e.g., with “therapeutic vaccines”). Should we find that these and/or other approaches work to cure HIV, we will ensure that they become available to all in need.

What is the significance of this project?

Our ultimate goal is to eradicate HIV and to end the AIDS epidemic. It will take much more than just science to do this. We now know more about how HIV can persist in those who are treated and we have ideas about how to make it go away. To reach this goal, we also must harness the concerted efforts and wisdom of scientists, clinicians, and community members who are working together in a multidisciplinary, collaborative team. It is only in this manner that the enormity of the problem can be faced and finally solved.

For-profit companies form functional teams focused on the discovery and development of medical interventions for reimbursable illnesses. Meanwhile, the academic environment selects for creative, ambitious, independent scientists who are not necessarily skilled in the formation of effective multidisciplinary teams. Left in the void is the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of many human diseases that afflict those in need around the world, including the United States. The Division of Experimental Medicine (DEM) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has been established to fill this void. Working with our partners at San Francisco General Hospital and other research locations around the world, we wish to study the way in which the human body responds not only to HIV but also to multiple other chronic infectious agents that travel with HIV, e.g., tuberculosis, malaria, and helminthic worms.

TCAP and the Division of Experimental Medicine are the vehicles through which these life-saving interventions can be developed, tested, and ultimately manufactured for global distribution. We wish to ensure that our research discoveries will be accessible to those who need them most.

What are the goals of the project?

Donated funds will be used to support the Division of Experimental Medicine through the creation of The Cure AIDS Project (TCAP), a non-profit organization committed to the eradication of HIV/AIDS. TCAP will bring awareness about the epidemic as a continual threat to public health and, most importantly, promote an effort to eradicate HIV.

Specifically, TCAP will launch a global social media campaign through a website created from donated funds. This will include an educational outreach video discussing the continual threat that HIV represents to public health and a pamphlet describing TCAP’s initiatives, the scientific research being conducted with donations collected through our website, and the timeline for eradicating HIV.

TCAP, our collaborators, and the scientific team at the Division of Experimental Medicine will form partnerships with other non-profit organizations and corporate sponsors. In so doing, we wish for this team to become a global non-profit leader in the eradication of HIV. The funds donated through this campaign will provide the start-up capital necessary to catalyze this effort.