The goal of the project is to present a spectrum of information and opinions about the current status and future prospects of these areas of research, with a particular focus on the questions that face scientists and people with HIV in this era of increasingly effective antiretroviral therapy. Examples include:

• Is it possible to move beyond antiretrovirals (ART) by curing or inducing immunological control - or tolerance - of HIV infection?
• What is the clinical impact of immune activation in HIV infection?
• Are there consequences of HIV-induced immune dysregulation that are not addressed by ART?
• Can therapies be developed to help individuals with inadequate immune reconstitution on ART?
• How does HIV cause immune activation?
• How does immune activation lead to immune deficiency?
• Is an HIV vaccine possible?
• Are there correlates of immunity against HIV?
• Is the constrained research funding environment impacting the conduct of HIV research?
• Could changes to the current research infrastructure help researchers address outstanding questions about HIV immunology & pathogenesis?
• Are there researchers from other fields that could contribute to our understanding of HIV infection?

Interviews are being conducted by Palm Project coordinator Richard Jefferys and interview transcripts along with glossaries, explanatory notes and bibliographies will be posted to this section of TAG's website.

If you have questions or comments about the project you can write to Richard at richard.jefferys@verizon.net or post a comment to the Palm Project Blog (http://tagbasicscienceproject.typepad.com); notifications will be posted to the blog each time a new interview goes online.

This project has been made possible by the generous support of the Michael J. Palm Foundation.

Interview Listing

• Steven Deeks
• Douglas Nixon