Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1

HIV-1,  the etiologic agent of AIDS, can establish latency in memory T cells where the integrated HIV-1 provirus is intact but transcriptionally quiescent. One goal of our research is to develop vectors that can target these latently infected T cells and then express the DNA editing enzyme Cas9, and guide RNAs targeted to conserved regions of the HIV-1 provirus, with the goal of cleaving and destroying that provirus. A second area of research involves the study of the epitranscriptomic regulation of HIV-1 gene expression.