CHEETAH Awarded $28 Million to Explore HIV's Inner Workings and Vulnerabilities

CHEETAH Center for Structural Biology of HIV Infection Restriction and Viral Dynamics Awarded $28 Million

A University of Utah Health-led multi-institutional research center that studies the inner workings and vulnerabilities of HIV, the human immunodeficieny virus that causes AIDS, recently received a five-year, $28 million grant renewal from the National Institutes of Health.

Since its founding in 2007, the CHEETAH Center for Structural Biology of HIV Infection Restriction and Viral Dynamics has published more than 300 research papers that have led to a better understanding of HIV and its potential treatments.

Wesley Sundquist, Ph.D., the center’s director and professor and chair of the Department of Biochemistry at U of U Health, is leading 20 research teams from 12 institutions. With the grant renewal, the researchers will focus on:

  • Determining how HIV infects cells,
  • Understanding how host cells defend against the virus,
  • Analyzing how the virus becomes dormant and rebounds, and
  • Developing next-generation tools and methodologies to better understand the structure and mechanisms of HIV.

Full Article

CHEETAH Center for Structural Biology of HIV Infection Restriction and Viral Dynamics
Illustration depicting nuclear HIV capsids completing reverse transcription while largely intact, and then uncoating and integrating their viral DNA into the host DNA. Created by Janet Iwasa to accompany an article entitled “Reconstitution and visualization of HIV-1 capsid-dependent replication and integration in vitro” by Devin E. Christensen, Barbie K. Ganser-Ponillos, Jarrod S. Johnson, Owen Pornillos, and Wesley I. Sundquist (Science Vol. 370 (6513):abc8420).