Boris Juelg, MD, PhD, and Toong Seng Tan, PhD, each presented papers at the event. Research from other faculty was also represented.

Earlier this month, Ragon faculty member Boris Juelg, MD, PhD, spoke at the 2024 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) held in Denver, Colorado from March 3 – March 6.

Juelg, pictured at a CROI press conference, presented the paper “Therapeutic Efficacy of a Triple Combination of HIV-1 Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies,” which discussed a study he led on the efficacy of a combination of three bNAbs that showed long-term virologic control of HIV in persons living with the virus who had discontinued antiretroviral use. In simple terms, bNAbs are proteins that can block and neutralize a wide range of viruses with the potential to have a broad impact on HIV treatment.

The research found that 83% percent of patients maintained virologic suppression for 28 weeks after taking the bNAb cocktail, while 42% percent had virologic suppression for an even longer period of 38-44 weeks, despite the decline of bNAb concentrations.

Ragon postdoctoral fellow Toong Seng Tan, PhD, also presented a paper titled ‘​”Sex-Based Differences in HIV-1 Reservoir Profile in Individuals With Long-Term ART Suppression,” which was co-authored by Ragon faculty Xu Yu, MD, Mathias Lichterfeld, MD, PhD, and Mary Carrington, PhD. 

This study evaluated differences in HIV-1 reservoir profile on ART suppressed individuals, with results suggesting  a sex-based difference in host immune-driven proviral landscape evolution during long-term suppressive ART. 

Also presented at the conference were other papers co-authored by Ragon faculty members, including Amy Barczak, MD; Gaurav Gaiha, PhD, DPhil; Thumbi Ndung’u, PhD; Ragon steering committee member Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, and Philip Goulder, DPhil.