Gareth Hardy

I am a viral immunologist with extensive experience working with HIV, gained over the last 20 years. I received my bachelor’s degree in Immunology at University College London and my Ph.D. in Immunology at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, School of Medicine, London. I have authored nearly 40 publications on a range of topics from HIV-specific immune responses, immunotherapy of HIV and the immunopathogenesis of HIV infection. I have worked on both clinical trials and in basic science research projects and have considerable laboratory expertise. Earlier, my research endeavors focused on augmenting HIV-specific cell mediated immune responses with immunotherapy, including therapeutic vaccination and IL-2. In recent years, I was a faculty member at the Department of Pathology, Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, where my focus shifted to investigations of dysregulation of the interface between innate and adaptive immune responses in HIV infection, the effects of chronic immune activation and more recently eradication or latent HIV reservoirs in the body. In addition to my research work, I have also been involved with numerous European, UK and US based treatment activist groups and have written for a variety of community publications since the early 1990’s. Most recently, I have been an editor of the National AIDS Manual Treatment and Trials Directory and am an editor and contributor to HIV Treatment Bulletin, both in the UK, and have written articles published online by different community groups and newsletters. I am currently based at the new Centre for Immunology and Vaccinology, Imperial College, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London where my focus is in HIV cure research.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis dramatically protects against HIV infection: UK Proud study results published

  Results of the United Kingdom PROUD study were published in the September 9th issue of the Lancet, following their earlier presentation at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections 2015, in Seattle [1]. As reported at CROI, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) dramatically reduces the risk of HIV infection in gay men and transgender females by …

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Panobinostat phase 1 trial provides limited advance in HDAC inhibitor pipeline

The first clinical trial of Panobinostat by the Department of Infectious Diseases and Department of Immunology at Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark marks the next step in the development of the histone deactylase (HDAC) inhibitor group of latency reversal agents [1]. Thomas Rasmussen and colleagues describe results from this single-arm phase1/2 clinical trial of the second …

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Incidence of HIV dual infections in US men who have sex with men

  A new study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases confirms that HIV dual infection and HIV reinfection are common. Researchers at University of California in San Diego and colleagues used new sequencing technology and phylogenetic analyses to determine the incidence and prevalence of dual infection by more than one strain of HIV in …

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Have HDAC inhibitors fallen from grace?

Two recent papers present conflicting data on the efficacy of histone deacteylase (HDAC) inhibitors, the leading class of latency reversing agents (LRAs). Replication-competent integrated HIV provirus is able to form a persist reservoir in cellular compartments such as resting memory CD4 T cells by remaining in a long-term latent state that is highly stable.  Activation …

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HIV reservoir: CD4 T stem cells may facilitate long-term persistence

A report in Nature Medicine is important for suggesting that a recently discovered and little understood subset of CD4 T cells are a long-term hiding place for the HIV reservoir. Maria Buzon and colleagues at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Boston, describe their analysis of the HIV reservoir in different …

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London’s HIV crisis: A storm seeded in the noughties?

  An alarming increase in the incidence of both HIV-infection and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has been occurring amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) in England over the last two years. A number of news reports highlight an alarming increase in the incidence of gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis among MSM, particularly in …

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Boston bone marrow patients not cured – viral rebounds reported at Viral Persistence During Therapy conference, Miami, FL

The Boston Globe this morning reports:- HIV virus returns after cure hope rose 2 Boston patients had transplants of marrow, halted powerful drugs   This story is being picked up by multiple news outlets now, including the NY Times and NPR. The findings were reported by Dr Timothy Henrich of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in …

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Criminalization of People with HIV: Reaction to a breaking story in Ohio

On September 11th 2013, news media outlet WBNS-10TV in Columbus, Ohio, carried a story about a local man who has been charged with “Allegedly Not Notifying Partner of HIV Status”. While the story makes its way round other news outlets, there has been no court hearing as yet, no conviction has been made and all …

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