IAVI REPORT – VOL. 19, NO. 2, 2015

Every time I sit down to write an Editor’s Letter, I think of food. It isn’t that I’m hungry. It is because the only “letters from the editor” that I ever read are in food magazines.

These letters often mention some amazing dinner party or exotic locale and almost always feature some lust-worthy dishes that make me immediately want to start cooking—or at least eating. I don’t have any stories of great meals to entice you with, but the articles in this issue provide a smorgasbord of scientific advances and personal stories that you will surely want to devour.

In one feature we interview six prominent women scientists involved in everything from vaccine research to implementing global HIV treatment programs. We ask what drives them to continue working in HIV/AIDS more than 30 years after the pandemic began. Their answers are inspiring and in some cases surprising.

In another article on advances in HIV cure research, we follow esteemed researcher Steve Deeks from the University of California in San Francisco as he navigates the recently held Keystone Symposium onHIV Persistence: Implications for a Cure. His broad history in and knowledge of the HIV treatment and cure fields are on full display, as is his droll sense of humor.

Finally, in this issue we report on advances in developing vaccine immunogens designed to induce broad and potent neutralizing antibody responses against HIV. A trio of recently published research papers showcase promising first steps in developing and testing these new immunogens in animal models.

Bon appétit!

—Kristen Jill Kresge