The Road to a Cure: Characterization of a New HIV Antibody

Undergraduate students in Dr. Ismael Ben Fofana’s advanced lab course, Vaccine Development and Public Health, have published an article in Elements, the undergraduate research journal of Boston College. The article was entitled, “The Road to a Cure: Characterization of a New HIV Antibody.” This article was a version of the final paper submitted by undergraduate student Zachary Park. 

The lab course is research-based and is built on Dr. Fofana’s research, which focuses on understanding antibody responses to HIV infection and immunization using the SIV/macaque model of HIV/AIDS pathogenesis and vaccine.

The work presented in the BC journal was further developed in the lab and published in the Aids Research and Human Retroviruses journal under the title “Analysis of SIVmac Envelope-Specific Antibodies Selected Through Phage Display.” This work included BC undergraduates Seung Yub Han and Katherine Sullivan. Katherine Sullivan is currently a Research Associate I at MassBiologics, UMass Medical School. Seung Yub Han is currently a research technician in the lab of Prof Junhyong Kim in the Department of Biology and Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania.

The work presented in both journals will improve our ability to induce protective antibodies during anti-HIV vaccination.