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Recent Publications

View a listing of our most recent publications.                                                                                                       

The HIV Dynamics and Replication Program (HIV DRP) was formed in 1997 as the HIV Drug Resistance Program, with the mission of conducting and fostering multidisciplinary basic, translational, and clinical research focused on problems related to drug-resistant HIV. 

The scope of research conducted by HIV DRP scientists has expanded over the years to encompass a broader range of important problems in virus biology.  Thus, in 2015, the name of the Program was changed to HIV Dynamics and Replication to better capture the breadth of the research carried out by the Program.

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Drs. Nikolaitchik, Hu and Chen

About Our Program

Learn about our mission, research interests and goals, and organization.

Clinical Trials

The clinical arm of the HIV Dynamics and Replication Program is under the direction of Frank Maldarelli, M.D., Ph.D. (Clinical Retrovirology Section).  Its primary research focus is to understand the population genetics, evolution, dynamics, and persistence of HIV infection in patients, particularly as related to the development of resistance and possible ways to overcome it.  In collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases/Clinical Center Medicine Department AIDS Clinic and the HIV and AIDS Malignancy Branch of the NCI Center for Cancer Research (CCR), Dr. Maldarelli develops and secures Institutional Review Board approval for clinical trials, and implements them using the support of these groups.  

All CCR clinical trials take place at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and are open to patients with HIV, cancer, or immunodeficiency disorders, regardless of where they live in the United States.

Open Trials
Completed Trials
Collaborative Protocols

For further information about these clinical trials, please contact Dr. Maldarelli at fmalli@mail.nih.gov.

Job Vacancies

Position Degree Required Contact Name Contact Email
Postdoctoral Fellow - Tumor Viruses, RNA Biology Ph.D. or equivalent, M.D. or equivalent Zhi-Ming Zheng, M.D., Ph.D. zhengt@exchange.nih.gov
Postdoctoral Fellow - HIV replication, retroviral RNA packaging Ph.D. or equivalent, M.D. or equivalent Wei-Shau Hu, B.V.M., Ph.D. wei-shau.hu@nih.gov

Fellowships

Training Opportunities

The HIV Dynamics and Replication Program (HIV DRP) is committed to training and supporting the next generation of researchers. There are opportunities available to you at each level of your education/career stage:

  • High School/College Student
  • College Graduate
  • Graduate/Professional School Student
  • Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Medical School Graduate

There are summer internships, fellowships, and unique training programs designed to increase expertise in areas such as biotechnology and regulatory review. In addition, NCI has also established several programs to encourage students from populations that are underrepresented in science or individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who are interested in biomedical research careers.

As part of the NCI Center for Cancer Research, the HIV DRP offers a training environment that is second-to-none in quality of science and quality of life.

Student and Postbaccalaureate Fellows - Summer 2019
Students and Postbac Fellows — Summer 2019

Resources

The HIV DRP is a major source of scientific resources that benefit the research community.

Members of the HIV DRP have donated reagents to the NIH AIDS Research & Reference Reagent Program, including purified proteins, monoclonal antibodies, retroviral vectors, and expression plasmids. In addition, they provide many reagents directly to qualified academic researchers, and the NIH has licensed expression plasmids and mouse strains developed by HIV DRP investigators.

RCAS System

Mary Kearney, Stephen Hughes, and members of the Vector Design and Replication Section (VDRS) developed the RCAS System of retroviral vectors and have widely distributed these vectors to investigators for adaptation to their research programs.  VDRS members have also developed retroviral vectors using redirected HIV integration as a tool to investigate chromatin structure and function and to investigate the nature and origin of the HIV reservoir in patients on antiretroviral therapy. 

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HIV DRP Databases and Analytical Tools

HIV DRP investigators have developed and applied novel assays that have become the gold standards for ultrasensitive HIV detection and genetic characterization of HIV populations.  Members of the Program have provided both intramural and extramural investigators with extensive training in these and other HIV virology methods and techniques.  The HIV DRP established a service for the extramural community to access these sensitive HIV RNA and DNA quantification assays and HIV sequencing through the HIV Molecular Monitoring Core (Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc.), and coordinated by Frank Maldarelli.  The laboratory of Wei-Shau Hu has also provided reagents and advanced technologies for RNA labeling to many investigators worldwide.

Mary Kearney and members of the Translational Research Section (TRS), in collaboration with Stephen Hughes and with consultation from John Coffin (Tufts University) and John Mellors (University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine), developed two public databases for the storage and meta-analysis of retrovirus integration sites (Retrovirus Integration Database) and near full-length HIV proviruses that persist both prior to and during antiretroviral therapy (Proviral Sequence Database).  These databases are important new resources for the field and include powerful tools for easy searching and analyses of millions of integration sites and thousands of near full-length HIV sequences that have been submitted to date.  TRS investigators have also developed bioinformatics tools and software programs to analyze HIV sequences within populations and to determine the effect of drug-resistance mutations on the outcome of antiretroviral therapy, including the HIV-DRLink program, the Sequence Overrepresentation index, and the HIVIntact and NanoHIV pipelines.

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Related Sites

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Resources at the NCI at Frederick

In addition to the NCI Retrovirus Integration Database, developed and hosted by the HIV DRP, a large variety of resources are available on the NCI at Frederick campus, including:

Retroviruses Book Online

The full text of the book Retroviruses (edited by John M. Coffin, Stephen H. Hughes, and Harold E. Varmus, 1997, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press) is available online at the National Center for Biotechnology Information website. Figures, tables, and retrotrivia features from the book are also available at this website. (Permission to depict the book's cover here was kindly granted by the publisher.

Retroviruses book cover

News

News Archive

For more HIV DRP news, see our news archive.  

HIV DRP Symposium Honors Stephen Hughes' Career

In recognition of his recent retirement, HIV DRP hosted a symposium on October, 19, 2022, to celebrate Dr. Stephen Hughes’ illustrious career. The scientific component of the symposium included talks by the following invited speakers: Eddy Arnold, Mike Bishop, Mario Capecchi, John Coffin, Wei-Shau Hu, Mary Kearney, Jeff Lifson, Dmitry Lyumkis, Bob Siliciano, Ron Swanstrom, Harold Varmus, and Peter Vogt. Jeff Strathern, Nita Maihle, and Larry Arthur also said a few words about Steve’s scientific and non-scientific accomplishments. View NIH Videocast 

Recent Honors and Awards

2022 NIH Fellows Awards for Research Excellence

Beatriz Alvarado Hernandez (Zheng lab), Jennifer Groebner (Kearney lab), Yuta Hikichi (Freed lab), and James Kirui (Freed lab) received 2022 NIH Fellows Awards for Research Excellence (FARE) for travel to attend and present their work at a scientific meeting in the U.S. this year.  This award acknowledges outstanding scientific research performed by intramural postdoctoral fellows, based on scientific merit, originality, experimental design, and overall quality and presentation of the abstracts.  

2022 Intramural AIDS Research Fellowships

Intramural AIDS Research Fellowship (IARF) awards from the Office of AIDS Research, Office of Intramural Research, and Office of Intramural Research & Training in the National Institutes of Health include full stipend support to successful candidates who demonstrate outstanding scientific potential through both an imaginative and thoughtful research plan and a well thought out career development plan.  The following postdoctoral fellows received recent IARF awards to support their research projects:

  • Adam Capoferri (Kearney lab):  "Dynamics of HIV-1 Proviral Expression in Untreated People Living with HIV"
  • Yuta Hikichi (Freed lab):  "Mechanism of HIV-1 Env-Mediated Drug Resistance"
  • Jonathan Kitzrow (Hu lab):  "Understanding the Cellular Life of HIV-1 RNA, From Transcription to Degradation"
  • Hana Veler (Freed lab):  "Investigating the Interaction Between the MA Domain of Gag and the Cytoplasmic Tail of gp41 During HIV-1 Maturation"
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