Professor João Gonçalves at Faculdade de Farmácia de Lisboa and researcher at Instituto de Medicina Molecular in Lisbon, Portugal, will receive a Grand Challenges Exploration Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He will use the grant to create therapeutic nanoparticles to silence HIV-1 viruses from the infected organisms.
IMM's Professor João Gonçalves
His project titled, ‘Nanotechnology against viral latency. Sensor strategies to eliminate HIV-1 infected cells,’ is one of the 88 projects to receive grants from the Foundation, an initiative to enable international scientists to research on ways to enhance healthcare in developing countries.
The virus remains latent in the infected cells for many years, by burrowing into the genome of certain cells of the immune system such as T lymphocytes. The HIV-1 virus cannot be detected in individuals. The team will design and create therapeutic nanoparticles that will identify and silence HIV-1 infected cells.
The nanoparticles will comprise two molecules, antibodies to identify target cells where latent HIV-1 viruses hide in the genome, and a DNA portion containing data to generate a toxin to eliminate the infected cells. The nanoparticles will be created to trigger the toxin development in cells housing the viruses.
The basic research will develop two strategies to develop the nanoparticles using USD 100,000 over one year. It will be a laboratory development. Further funds of USD one million could be granted if the research proves successful. The nanoparticles will be mass produced in the second phase, which will also enable the team to develop test for efficiency and security.