Next week begins the international AIDS conference, being held this year in Washington DC. CIRM’s board member Jeff Sheehy is there, in his role as long-time HIV/AIDS advocate.

For the first time, the news coming out in advance of the meeting is about cures, not long-term drugs. As the Washington Post reports, this is a sea change in how people think about the disease, driven in part by the experience of the man known as the Berlin patient.

Timothy Ray Brown received a bone marrow transplant in Berlin to treat his leukemia. But that transplant came from a person who had an unusual mutation that made his blood cells resistant to HIV. Once those cells repopulated Brown’s blood system, he too resisted the HIV virus that had once infected his cells.

That experience has driven HIV/AIDS researchers to mimic Brown’s experience. There aren’t enough donors who carry the appropriate mutations to cure all people. But through genetic manipulation and some stem cell know-how, two groups of CIRM grantees are working toward the goal of a cure.

The Washington Post story quotes Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS:

“The previous generation fought for treatment. Our generation must fight for a cure.”

There’s more information about the two CIRM teams on our website. I’ll be watching for news from the meeting about progress toward the ultimate goal of a world without HIV/AIDS.

A.A.