Magazine Issue - May 2015 | Chipping Away at HIV

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May 2015

Cover Story

Hidden Menace

John Frater, Genevieve Martin, Matthew Pace | May 1, 2015

Curing HIV means finding and eradicating viruses still lurking in the shadows.

Features

Defeating the Virus

Wayne C. Koff | May 1, 2015

Recent discoveries are spurring a renaissance in HIV vaccine research and development.

Hearts on Trial

Kerry Grens | May 1, 2015

As researchers conduct the most rigorous human trials of cardiac cell therapies yet attempted, a clear picture of whether these treatments actually work is imminent.

Contributors

Meet some of the people featured in the May 2015 issue of The Scientist.

Editorial

Hiding in the Haystack

Encouraging developments in HIV research

Speaking of Science

May 2015's selection of notable quotes

Notebook

Llamas as Lab Rats

From diagnostics to vaccines, llama antibodies point to new directions in HIV research.

A Most Kinky Moth

A retired entomologist discovers a world of behavioral diversity in the courtship rituals of a well-studied moth species.

HIV in the Internet Age

Social networking sites may facilitate the spread of sexually transmitted disease, but these sites also serve as effective education and prevention tools.

Miraculous Activist

Timothy Ray Brown, commonly referred to as the “Berlin patient,” does not want to be the only person cured of AIDS.

Critic at Large

Think Before You Fire

Industry layoffs may save a few dollars, at the cost of losing the collective brainpower of thousands of scientists.

Seeded by Weeds

More than 50 years after cross-contamination of cultured cell lines was recognized, the problem continues to plague the scientific community.

Modus Operandi

Scanning for SIV’s Sanctuaries

Whole-body immunoPET scans of SIV-infected macaques reveal where the replicating virus hides.

The Literature

Looking for Latent HIV

Sequencing HIV integration sites suggests that clonally expanded T-cell populations may not be the main source of latent virus.

The Origins of O

A strain of HIV that has afflicted more than 100,000 people emerged from gorillas.

Soluble Signal

An immune protein previously thought to mark inactive T cells has a free-floating form that correlates with HIV disease progression.

Profile

Putting It Together

Exploring viral replication pathways has led Carol Carter from the study of measles and reoviruses to the assembly and budding of newly minted HIV.

Scientist to Watch

Filippos Porichis: Immunoregulator

Principal Investigator, Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. Age: 33

Lab Tools

Show Me Your Moves

Updated classics and new techniques help microbiologists get up close and quantitative.

All Is Not Quiet on the Western Front

A grab bag of advances is making Western blots faster, more sensitive, and more reliable.

Careers

Follow the Funding

In times of budget belt-tightening at the federal level, life-science researchers can keep their work supported through private sources.

Reading Frames

Attacking AIDS on Many Fronts

A close cooperation between science, politics, and economics has helped to control one of history’s most destructive epidemics.

Capsule Reviews

The Genealogy of a Gene, On the Move, The Chimp and the River, and Domesticated

Foundations

Early AIDS Messages

Early HIV/AIDS posters raised awareness about the disease and later encouraged behavioral changes to prevent its spread.