About PAVE

PAVE is a multidisciplinary and multicultural group of doctors, scientists, and industry partners dedicated to eradicating HIV/AIDS in children.

The Issue

Globally, an estimated 16.8 million children, adolescents, and young adults under 25 live with HIV. Despite prevention efforts of mother-to-child transmission, the childhood HIV epidemic continues with ~130,000 children born with HIV each year. These children, adolescents, and young adults take lifelong, daily antiretroviral therapy (ART). While preclinical models informed the direction of novel HIV-1 therapeutics for adults, there is a sizeable gap in safety and efficacy data for cure strategies in preclinical pediatric models. The Pediatric Adolescent Virus Elimination (PAVE) Collaboratory seeks to fill this gap.

The Science

PAVE is the only pediatric Martin Delaney Collaboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Our mission is to use cutting edge science to deepen the understanding of the immunopathogenesis of pediatric HIV-1 reservoirs across the age spectrum, as well as to demonstrate preclinical safety and efficacy of novel therapeutics to eradicate reservoirs and control rebound.

We will use in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro systems to broadly and deeply understand the immunopathogenesis of HIV-1 reservoirs and optimal approaches to eradicate HIV-1 in perinatal infection. The research builds on existing patient cohorts, our expertise with infant Non- Human Primate (NHP) models, and prior experience with Latency Reversal Agents (LRAs) and clearance agents in adult NHPs.

The work of our Collaboratory will lead to future interventional human studies toward a lifetime of sustained HIV-1 control without daily ART. With PAVE’s unparalleled access to the largest number of pediatric clinical cohorts, as well as two of the leading National Primate Research Centers, our team will work collaboratively to cure pediatric HIV-1 by meeting the following specific aims:

  • To define the establishment and evolution of the HIV-1 latent reservoir in perinatal infection.
  • To enhance pediatric immunity and broadly neutralizing antibody (bNAb) delivery to achieve post-treatment control of HIV-1 off ART.
  • To deploy immune-targeted strategies to eliminate virus reservoirs.
  • To optimize virologic, immunologic, and imagining methods to assess efficacy of HIV-1/S(H)IV cure interventions.
  • To foster community engagement in pediatric HIV-1 cure research.

The Team

PAVE is a multidisciplinary, multicultural, and iterative Collaboratory with a nimble structure that allows us to rapidly incorporate new scientific directions and feedback from our stakeholders. Our leadership team encompasses diverse scientific expertise as well as diversity in terms of gender, race, academic rank, and country of origin. Of the Program Directors, Research Focus leaders, and Community Program leaders, 60% are female (with 100% female MPDs) and 40% are Associate Professors, with representation from four different countries. One of PAVE’s primary goals is to facilitate junior faculty career development toward building the next generation of pediatric-focused HIV-1 cure researchers, which is why each of our four Research Foci also include junior faculty co-Investigators. PAVE has built in collaborations with industry partners (ImmunityBio, Inimmune Corp., AccelevirDx, and ViiV Healthcare, Inc.), clinical trial networks (IMPAACT and PENTA), a US-based long-term follow-up cohort study (PHACS), and community programs (AVAC and EGPAF).

Grant Number: UM1AI164566