EAVI2020 at HIVR4P

26th March 2021

HIV Research for Prevention (HIVR4P) took place virtually in February and many of EAVI2020’s researchers participated in various capacities. HIVR4P is the only global scientific conference focused exclusively on the challenging and fast-growing field of HIV prevention research and to have so many of our researchers involved is a testament to EAVI2020’s commitment to knowledge exchange with its stakeholders and the scientific community. On the HIVR4P programme committee from EAVI2020 includes Dr Gabriella Scarlatti (OSR, Italy), Prof Damien Purcell (UoM, Australia), Prof Rogier Sanders (AMC, The Netherlands), and Prof Robin Shattock (Imperial UK).

Below are just some of the presentations, oral abstracts and co-chairing our EAVI2020 researchers carried out at HIVR4P. The conference programme has more details on all sessions.

EAVI2020 @ HIVR4P

Symposium

B and T cells: Old players, new strategies

Co-chaired by Christian Brander (IrsiCaixa, Barcelona)

Presentation by Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam (Karolinska Institutet, Sweden) – The maturation of B cell responses

Early vaccine clinical studies on native-like envelope trimers and germline-targeting immunogens

Presentation by Katrina Pollock – Native-like trimers based on consensus and mosaic envelope sequences

Getting the job done: Designing immunogens to induce broadly neutralizing antibodies

Co-chairs, Tom Hanke (University of Oxford, UK) and Max Crispin (University of Southampton, UK)

An ambitious and advancing pipeline: T-cell and non-neutralizing antibody-based vaccine strategies

Presentation by Tom Hanke (University of Oxford, UK) – Refocusing T cell responses with therapeutic vaccination strategies

First responders

Presentation by Behazine Combadiere (INSERM, CIMI, France) – Innate immune response signatures (adjuvants)

Oral Abstracts

Env and platform designs to improve antibody responses

Co-chaired by Pauline Maisonnasse (Université Paris-Saclay, France)

Presentation by Isabella Huettner (King’s College London, UK) – Cross-reactivity between HIV-1 bnAbs and parasite glycans

Gene-based vaccine approaches

Co-chaired by Paul McKay (Imperial College London, UK)

Presentation by Nathifa Moyo (University of Oxford, UK) – Tetravalent immunogen assembled from conserved regions of HIV-1 and delivered as mRNA demonstrates potent preclinical T cell immunogenicity and breadth

Presentation by Eric Arts (Western University, Canada) – A VSV-based HIV-1 vaccine provides protection in macaques against low dose cross-clade SHIVenv_SF162_P3 challenge

Integrating and optimizing cellular responses

Presentation by Narcis Saubi (Vall d’Hebron Institut de Recerca, Barcelona) – BCG.HTI2auxo.int priming vaccination enhances the HIV-1 specific T cell immune responses elicited by MVA.HTI

Building better bNAbs

Co-chaired by Marit van Gils (AMC, The Netherlands)