A vaccine for hepatitis C has eluded scientists for more than 30 years, for several reasons. For one, the virus that causes the disease comes in many genetic forms, complicating the creation of a widely effective vaccine. For another, studying hepatitis C has been difficult because options in animals are limited and lab methods using infected cells have not adequately reflected the real-life dynamics of infection.
News Category: Gladstone Article
When Will This Pandemic End?
As the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 continues to sweep through Europe and moves into the Middle East and Latin America, a new variant of Omicron, known as BA.2, is running up case counts in several nations. Denmark has been particularly hard hit with BA.2, which now accounts for over half of all infections in the country. In the United States, hospitalizations remain at high levels even as COVID-19 cases are declining in many of the communities that were hardest-hit by the virus earlier in the pandemic, allowing the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, to relax certain mandates.
Where is this pandemic taking us next?
What You Should Know About Omicron
In late November 2021, scientists reported the emergence of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In a matter of weeks, the variant, dubbed Omicron, spread around the globe.
Today, the Omicron variant accounts for about 98 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, and case counts and hospitalizations are spiking at all-time highs in many places. At the same time, recommendations are constantly shifting about how to prevent COVID-19, and when to isolate or quarantine. Across both social media and mainstream media outlets, conflicting opinions are being raised about what Omicron means for the future of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This week, three virologists at Gladstone Institutes—Warner Greene, MD, PhD, director of the Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research; Melanie Ott, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology; and Nadia Roan, PhD, associate investigator—discussed what people should know about Omicron, home testing, and more.
What to Expect in 2022
Warner Greene, MD, PhD
Director, Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research, Gladstone Institutes
Melanie Ott, MD, PhD
Director, Gladstone Institute of Virology
Moderator: Deepak Srivastava, MD
President, Gladstone Institutes
You wore a mask. You sheltered in place and avoided travel. You got the vaccine. You thought we would soon be on the other side of the pandemic. Then the Delta variant came, and now Omicron.
You, like many others, are starting to wonder, “When will this all be over?”
Gladstone virologists discuss what we know about Omicron and what we might expect in 2022.
How Close Are We to a Cure for HIV?
Infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was once considered a death sentence. Then, powerful antiretroviral drugs were developed and combined to suppress the virus, allowing those living with HIV to have a largely normal lifespan—as long as they take the medications daily.
However, the virus hides out in a latent form in immune cells to evade antiretroviral drugs, and discontinuing these drugs almost inevitably leads to rekindling of active infection. And despite the success of the drugs, they can cause side effects such as inflammation and accelerated aging.
On World AIDS Day 2021, investigators at Gladstone Institutes are aggressively pursuing a broad range of research that could one day help provide a cure for HIV, which now infects an estimated 38 million people worldwide, many of them in developing countries unable to afford or access daily antiretroviral therapy.
Ott Lab is part of a Global Collaboration to find a Cure for HIV
Now, with a $26.5-million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a multi-disciplinary group of researchers from institutions around the world is trying a completely new strategy for curing HIV. The group, known as the HIV Obstruction by Programmed Epigenetics (HOPE) Collaboratory, will be led by researchers at Gladstone Institutes, Scripps Research Florida, and Weill Cornell Medicine. Their approach, which aims to both silence and permanently remove HIV from the body, takes advantage of knowledge about how other viruses have become naturally inactivated over time.