Baquero discusses her HIV research, her time at the Ragon Institute, and the importance of preserving scientific and public health progress in Argentina.

Lucia Baquero is a visiting doctoral candidate from Buenos Aires, Argentina, currently conducting research at the Ragon Institute as part of her doctoral work. She’s part of a longstanding collaboration between her home lab, led by Natalia Laufer, MD, PhD, and Ragon Institute faculty members Mathias Lichterfeld, MD, PhD, and Xu Yu, MD, both experts in the study of HIV reservoirs and cure strategies.

In Argentina, Baquero has worked at the intersection of science and advocacy, contributing to both laboratory research and civil society efforts to reduce HIV stigma. She is pursuing her PhD through the University of Buenos Aires and the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET), based at the Institute for Biomedical Research in Retroviruses and AIDS (INBIRS).

In this interview, Baquero speaks about her background, her current research, and her hopes for the future of HIV science—both in Argentina and around the world.

Could you tell me about your background, where you’re from, and how you got into research?

I’m from Buenos Aires in Argentina. I grew up there, and I decided to study biology, so I did my degree in biology. By the end of my education, I got interested in immunology and virology, so I joined Dr. Gabriela Turk’s lab at INBIRS Institute (Institute for Biomedical Research in Retroviruses and AIDS) which is part of both the University of Buenos Aires and CONICET, and did my degree thesis to work in the HIV field.

At the same time, I joined for some years the Asociación Ciclo Positivo, which is a civil society organization of activists focused on promoting access to human rights and eliminating stigma and discrimination. That’s where I first learned about the concept of “Undetectable = Untransmittable”, or “U=U” (in Spanish, “I=I”), and it really resonated with me.  When I finished my degree, I started my PhD in Dr. Natalia Laufer’s lab at INBIRS institute as well to continue researching in the field.

What led you to come to the Ragon Institute?

My PI, Dr. Laufer, has been collaborating with Dr. Lichterfeld and Dr. Yu of the Ragon Institute for some time. They are both experts in the HIV field. One of their recent collaborations was on the second documented case of a possible spontaneous HIV cure, from a woman in Argentina known as the ‘Esperanza Patient.’

In that context, Dr. Lichterfeld and Dr. Yu invited me to join the lab here for one year as a graduate research assistant. The idea was for me to work on my PhD project while also being trained in cutting-edge technologies used to study the HIV reservoir. Both labs here are leaders in developing techniques for HIV cure research, and I was very eager to learn from them. I arrived around mid-August last year, and I’ll be here for one year.

You mentioned your work with a civil society organization—do you still do that?

I’m not actively involved right now. I did that especially toward the end of my undergraduate degree, but I had to step back during my PhD. I would love to go back at some point, though.

What has it been like coming to the U.S. and working in this research environment?

It’s my first time in the U.S., so it was all very new at the beginning. When I first came to the Ragon Institute, it was kind of shocking to see how much support and resources are available for research here. I could really see how quickly high-quality research can progress when those resources are in place.

One of my goals for my time here is to train in advanced techniques so that, hopefully, we can set them up back in Argentina. Unfortunately, the current situation in Argentina makes that difficult, especially with research, education, and public health all being underfunded.

That said, the scientific community here has been very welcoming. I’ve had the chance to join seminars, lectures, and collaborate with both the Yu and Lichterfeld labs. It’s been an amazing opportunity to be exposed to so many exciting projects – I hope that in the future, more people will be able to go through experiences like this.

Would you say that Argentina had a strong research infrastructure before the current funding situation?

Yes, absolutely. As an example, INBIRS Institute, where I work, was founded in 1987 as a national center in response to the HIV epidemic (the National Center of Reference for AIDS, CNRS, based at the School of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires) and remains a key institution for both research and clinical services. The institute depends on the CONICET, which was ranked on the top research institutions in Latin America (SCIMAGO ranking), and it’s the institution that granted me the scholarship to be able to do my PhD.

Argentina has a strong tradition of training skilled scientists and producing quality research with important international collaborations, as well as multiple public universities, also ranked highly among Latin American universities rankings, including the University of Buenos Aires. That system has always been limited by the availability of funding for research. The problem now is that we are at risk of losing the ability to sustain that system. When both science and education are threatened, it becomes very difficult to continue training future professionals or building on the progress that has been made.

Can you describe your research in simple terms?

I work in the HIV field. While rates of perinatal or vertical transmission (from the gestational parent to the fetus or the child) have declined, they still occur—mostly due to late diagnosis or barriers in access to treatment. Thanks to the effectiveness of antiretroviral therapy in controlling HIV and improving the quality of life, many people who acquired HIV in infancy or childhood are now adults in their 20s or 30s, having lived with the virus their entire lives.

There’s still very little data on how acquiring HIV in that early stage of life affects long-term immune health. In Argentina, many of these individuals grew up without access to the kinds of pediatric formulations or effective treatments we have now.

Our research focuses on understanding the viral reservoir in these adults. Even with effective treatment, HIV hides in certain cells (the “viral reservoirs”) and can replicate again if treatment is stopped. So we’re studying the immune profiles and viral reservoirs of people who acquired HIV perinatally and that are now reaching adulthood, all residents from Argentina. We’re focusing particularly on cisgender women, since women and girls make up more than 50% of people living with HIV globally but are underrepresented in research.

Here at the Ragon Institute, we’re doing deeper characterization of the viral reservoir—looking at the genetics of the virus and where it integrates in the human genome. Our goal is to understand whether existing HIV cure strategies under study would work for this population or whether we’ll need to develop new approaches.

What are your plans after your time at the Ragon Institute?

After this year, I’ll return to Argentina to finish my PhD. I’m very grateful to the Yu and Lichterfeld labs for the opportunity to gain this experience here—we wouldn’t have been able to make this progress in the project otherwise. In particular in this context, I believe international collaborations are key to maintaining scientific production.

In the long term, I hope I can help bring some of the techniques I’ve learned here back to Argentina so we can continue producing this kind of knowledge locally.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

While I’m very focused on the scientific work, I also want to express how concerned I am about what’s happening in Argentina and other parts of the world. It’s not just science—it’s education and public health that are being defunded. That puts at risk people’s access to testing, prevention, treatment, and follow-up care for HIV and other infections, among other essential health services.

We can’t afford to lose the rights and progress that have been achieved. Particularly in the HIV field, I also think there’s still a lack of inclusion of people living with HIV in the development of cure-related research and a lack of widespread public education around things like “U=U”, other prevention strategies, and HIV testing.

There’s still so much to be done—not just in the lab, but also to eliminate stigma, discrimination, and criminalization of people with HIV. That work is just as important.