Jul 29, 2011 - Claremont, CA -

For people living with HIV-AIDS, treating the disease means taking a daily drug cocktail for the rest of their lives. Now imagine what it would be like if they could make their cells resistant to HIV infection and more effectively slow the virus's spread without expensive drugs. Such is the treatment being explored by four students working this summer in chemistry and biology professor Karl Haushalter's lab striving to further a gene therapy approach to treating HIV-AIDS. The project is one of 85 summer research opportunities at HMC that engage more than a third of the student body in hands-on, high-level research.

The students in Haushalter's lab create cell cultures in which they make small genetic modifications to key areas of the cells and then test the effects of these tweaks. If any of the changes result in dramatic improvement in the cell's anti-viral qualities, they are further tested and developed in the lab of fellow project collaborator Dr. John Rossi at City of Hope National Medical Center. The research may lead to the development of an ex vivo (outside the organism) gene therapy that would suppress HIV replication by genetically altering the cells that HIV normally infects.

"The approach is to remove cells from a person's body, and treat them in such a way that they are able to take up additional DNA, and then return them back to the body," explains Emily Putnam '12, a chemistry and biology major. "Ultimately what we would hope is that these constructs here in the lab would end up in clinical trials for gene therapy. Maybe some day what we're working on here could be helping people and functionally curing them of their HIV." Emily will be continuing her research in the Haushalter lab for her senior thesis project.

"A lot of the work we're doing is similar to what graduate students are doing and it's a big advantage to be able to do work so early on," said Ashley Kretsch '13. "The work I do here I haven't learned in the classroom and I might not ever. It's very hands-on and this is all new stuff – I'm working on something that no one else is. No one has figured this out yet." Ashley began work in the Haushalter lab during her sophomore year.

"If this all works out, we'll be able to find a cure for 33 million people, which will be pretty significant for society," Krestsch said. "It's why I love this project."