8/ POZ magazine: www.poz.com/article/comb...

7/ San Francisco Examiner: www.sfexaminer.com/news/public-...

6/ Nature News and Views: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

5/ The Seattle Times: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

4/ UCSF: www.ucsf.edu/news/2025/12...

3/ Science: www.science.org/content/arti...

2/ The Washington Post (gift link): www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

Thoughtful coverage of our study from various outlets. 🧵 1/ The SF Chonicle: www.sfchronicle.com/health/artic...

10/ This was a small, single-arm, proof-of-concept study. The findings need to be replicated in other studies, several of which are enrolling now. Deeper investigations into the nature of the responding CD8+ T cells and the role of the bNAbs in potentiating host immune responses are ongoing.

9/ We think this robust expansion of CD8+ T cells in response to HIV rebound is meaningful: rare individuals who spontaneously control HIV also have CD8+ T cells with high proliferative capacity, and robust CD8+ T cell proliferation is correlated with better outcomes after cancer immunotherapy.

8/ Just as the immune system encountered the emerging virus, controllers more robustly expanded a sub-population of activated CD8+ T cells with a progenitor/stem-like phenotype (TCF-1+PD-1+) as well as sub-populations with a cytotoxic effector phenotype (T-bet+Granzyme B+).

7/ @demisandel.bsky.social (1st PhD student in my lab!) made the key observation: early in rebound, before viral loads diverged, participants who went on to control HIV to low levels had a larger expansion of activated, cycling CD8+ T cells in the blood compared to those who did not control rebound.

6/ Measurements of the viral reservoir - HIV DNA and RNA levels in peripheral blood CD4+ T cells - were relatively low in these participants (likely related to having started ART early) and they were unaffected by the immunotherapies. So why did we observe better control of HIV off of ART?

5/ Notably, six participants had unusual HIV rebound patterns. The slope of rebound (i.e., the rate of the viral load increase day-after-day) was quite slow and then they sustained low viral loads for several months. One participant did not rebound at all despite being off ART for over 18 months.

4/ After bNAbs waned and/or if the virus lost bNAb susceptibility (modeled by Amelia Deitchman), 3 participants rebounded as expected: they had a rapid increase in HIV levels in the blood to relatively high viral loads. They all re-started ART pretty quickly after the virus showed up in the blood.

3/ The single-arm, proof-of-concept study was based on a regimen that showed promising results in non-human primate models. Most of the 10 participants had started ART within 6 months of acquiring HIV. With no immunotherapy, we expected 1-2 might experience partial control of HIV after stopping ART.

2/ The regimen included: During ART: therapeutic vaccination (to enhance HIV-specific T cell responses vs conserved elements of HIV), then 2 broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) + an immune activator (TLR9a; to reduce the reservoir) When stopping ART: bNAbs (to potentiate host immune responses)

1/ We are making progress towards finding a cure for HIV. In a trial @UCSF led by Steve Deeks and @michaelpelusomd.bsky.social, 7/10 participants who received a combination of immunotherapies achieved partial control of HIV after stopping antiretroviral therapy (ART).🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

amfAR-funded study by UCSF shows promise for post-treatment HIV control. Most participants show a strong immune response during early viral rebound, demonstrating that, if properly assisted, the immune system can keep HIV in check w/out continued therapy. www.washingtonpost.com/science/2025...

🚨HUGE SCIENCE WIN ALERT🚨 NIH Grants to be restored en masse!!! Thank you Judge Young for standing up for science! #StandUpforScience #SummerFightforScience

THIS IS IT! THIS IS HUGE!! PLAINTIFF'S WIN!! Judge Young rules that the NIH grant terminations at issue in these cases are illegal and therefore vacated. BOOM!

New from me: Everything feels overwhelming. But here is a tangible thing you can do: write a comment to oppose Trump's plan to convert 50,000 career civil servants into political appointees. Deadline is May 23. Please share! donmoynihan.substack.com/p/here-is-a-...

With a torrent of executive orders, President Donald Trump has turned U.S. science upside down in his first 100 days, and the onslaught isn’t likely to end soon. scim.ag/3Yti8Xg

NIH just posted a Notice with the new Terms and Conditions... grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

🧪 Our Terminated NSF Grant Tracker is live 🧪 🔴 114 NSF grants listed so far 🔴 Cancelled grants focused on → Training scientists → Misinformation → AI → Climate change Credit to @noamross.net for all the work to build this & to all PIs who submitted their info. Link: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

Absolutely devastating reporting from Hana Kiros on what "life-saving aid" has come to mean and not mean, and the many children dying as a result. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

“The Trump administration is now tearing down that legacy. It has cut funding and programs for HIV research, treatment, and prevention so deeply that “we’re watching the field burn to the ground,” Rebecca Fielding-Miller, a behavioral scientist and an HIV researcher at UC San Diego, told me.”

I have learned that the directors of ALL: PREP, IMSD, and IRACDA programs across the country have received similar cancelation notices. This follows previous cancellations of MARC and URISE programs. This further dismantles the mechanisms that enable scientific training opportunities for SO MANY.

An important point getting overlooked: When NIH cancels "diversity" grants (e.g., diversity supplements, Fs, Ks, etc), they aren't canceling the grants based on *what* the grant studies. They're cancelling them based on *who* is doing the research. And that disallowed "who" is anyone not white.

NEW: “It’s chaos—absolute chaos,” said one NIH senior scientist watching the firings unfold. Some senior NIH officials given hours to decide if the agreed to be reassigned to jobs in Alaska, Oklahoma, and other states. | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Open letter from nearly 2000 NAS member scientists: "We see real danger in this moment. We hold diverse political beliefs, but we are united (...) in wanting to protect independent scientific inquiry. We are sending this SOS to sound a warning: the nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated."

We fell down the staircase: A conversation with @stephanienolen.bsky.social about tuberculosis and making our future more perilous. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/h...

On a letter I signed www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/s...

They are cutting cancer research. They are cutting cancer research. They can deny it all they want, but they are cutting cancer research. These are the cuts being made the DoD CDMRP cancer funding mechanism www.fightcancer.org/sites/defaul...

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

A decline in funding for the HIV response could result in millions of preventable new infections and deaths, with up to 120,000 of these deaths affecting children. International cooperation is essential to sustain the advances we’ve made in HIV prevention, testing, and treatment. bit.ly/43uTfxA

The NIH plans to resume posting notices of new solicitations for grant proposals. But there’s a catch: The HHS and DOGE will review each draft notice to ensure the research that will be funded aligns with the priorities of President Trump’s administration, Science has learned. scim.ag/3DJsafL

“The cancellations stunned scientists who had depended on the government’s support. “The idea that we don’t need further research to learn how to treat health problems caused by coronaviruses and prevent future pandemics because ‘Covid-19 is over’ is absurd,” said Pamela Bjorkman”

“Until I left last week, I led the CDC’s public health messaging. Now we need something to replace it.” When the government becomes a health misinformation superspreader www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

In <24 hours, Covid funding is DOGEd across HHS, CDC, NIH as if it and Long Covid didn't exist and there is no worry for future pandemics www.science.org/content/arti... www.nbcnews.com/health/healt... www.science.org/content/arti...

Combination immunotherapy induces post-intervention control of HIV www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-6...

Excited to share this preprint: In trial led by @michaelpelusomd.bsky.social and Steve Deeks, combination immunotherapy=>high rate of HIV control (low VL) after ART pause. @demisandel.bsky.social in our lab found control associated with robust CD8+ T cell proliferation early in response to rebound.