UCSF HARC Center Among Three New HIV Research Centers Funded by NIH

(adapted from an NIH news release) UCSF's HIV Accessory and Regulatory Complexes (HARC) Center, led by Alan Frankel, PhD, is one of three new research centers launched by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The three new centers, expected to receive $54 million over 5 years, have been established to deepen our biological understanding of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The UCSF HARC Center, which is slated to receive more than $18 million, will develop new tools and methods to create a complete picture of HIV-host cell interactions occurring during the early phases of the virus's life cycle. The center will focus on key HIV proteins that perform important regulatory and accessory functions. The three centers, which also include the University of Pittsburgh Center for HIV Protein Interactions and the Structural Biology Center for HIV/Host Interactions in Trafficking and Assembly, at the University of Utah, will integrate a variety of techniques from structural biology and biochemistry to capture in unprecedented detail the three-dimensional structures of HIV proteins bound to human cellular components, such as proteins or DNA. The structural information will help elucidate how the different components interact and reveal new approaches for disrupting those interactions, potentially leading to new targets for HIV therapies or vaccines. New methodologies and tools developed by the centers will be available to the research community at large. The centers also will collaborate with other scientists engaged in structural and functional studies of HIV, including researchers funded by NIAID through a coordinated funding program. Related Links: NIH Funds Centers to Study Structural Biology of HIV NIH news release, August 27, 2007 Frankel Lab