Antibody responses to HIV infection and vaccination in adults and children

Globally, more than 150,000 children become infected with HIV every year. There is a critically need to develop novel therapeutics including vaccines to prevent pediatric HIV infections. Dr Fouda’s lab conducts several studies investigating antibody responses in pediatric populations. Her group has notably demonstrated that children can develop robust antibody responses following immunization with HIV vaccine candidates and that children living with HIV develop broadly neutralizing antibody responses earlier than adults. As eliciting broadly neutralizing antibodies is an important target for HIV vaccines, these studies may provide insights to guide the pediatric HIV vaccine development pipeline.