From the earliest days of the AIDS pandemic, UCLA has been at the forefront of HIV research.  Indeed, it was a team of UCLA researchers who first described AIDS as a distinct disease entity, more than twenty-five years ago, and since then UCLA researchers have been first to:

• describe why early AIDS drugs failed

• report a case of HIV transmission through breast milk—in patient Ariel Glaser, daughter of Paul and Elizabeth Glaser

• show that activation of “resting” HIV is necessary for viral replication

• describe acute HIV infection

• demonstrate clearance of HIV from an infected infant

• identify, clone, and characterize HIV isolates in the brain

• document that, contrary to expectation, African-American women are more likely to take their HIV medications than are Latinas, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans

• discover that some individuals are wholly or partially resistant to HIV infection

• demonstrate the efficacy of HIV medications in adolescents

• report the epidemic of HIV infection among plasma donors in China

• elucidate the epidemiology of HIV in Brazil

• report outcomes from the largest randomized prevention trial conducted in the United States

• demonstrate the utility of "prevention for positives"

• show that the adult thymus can help rebuild an HIV-ravaged immune system

• reveal that risk patterns among young gay men change over time

• conduct studies of hematopoietic growth factors in seropositive patients with anemia and neutropenia

• conduct studies designed to promote risk-reduction among serodiscordant African-American couples

• helped to found the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS foundation, which now is the largest foundation for research in Pediatric HIV infection.

In addition, UCLA was among the very first to:

• develop an animal model for HIV, thereby enabling scientists to test new drug therapies

• show the clinical activity of AZT (zidovudine) in HIV-positive patients

• show the efficacy of protease inhibitors in children

• demonstrate that decreased levels of CD4 cells and increased levels of CD8 cells are associated with HIV infection

• devise treatments for patients who don’t respond to standard multidrug HIV therapy

• reduce mother-to-child transmission rates by pioneering the use of the drug AZT in HIV-positive pregnant women

• demonstrate the efficacy of alpha interferon as treatment for AIDS-related Kaposi’s sarcoma

• describe hypersensitivity to TMP-SMZ (Bactrim) in patients with HIV

• elucidate the heightened risk of cardiovascular events in male and female patients receiving antiretroviral therapy

• demonstrate the feasibility of stem-cell gene therapy in HIV

• examine patients’ attitudes toward stem-cell-based therapies

• show that even in persons who respond well to multidrug antiretroviral therapy, increases in CD4 cell count are more modest in older patients

• first characterization of env sequences responsible for macrophage tropism.

Major accomplishments at UCLA in the last five years:

• First to use T cell activation, coupled with immunotoxins, to purge latently infected cells (J. Zack)

• First to establish an in vitro model for HIV latency in primary cells (J. Zack)

• First to conduct Phase 2 anti-HIV autologous stem cell gene therapy trial in adults (R. Mitsuyasu)

• First to generate T cells from human embryonic stem cells (J. Zack)

• First to report elevated immune system activation markers prior to the diagnosis of an AIDS-associated cancer (non-Hodgkin's B cell lymphoma) (O. Martinez-Maza)

• First to describe an association between genetic polymorphisms in an immune system gene (interleukin 10) and the development of B cell lymphoma (E. Breen and O. Martinez-Maza)

• First to introduce lentiviral vectors into non-human primates (I. Chen/D. An)

• First to create lentiviral targeting vectors (I. Chen)

• First to transplant stable siRNA into non-human primates (I. Chen/D. An)

• First to describe cell cycle arrest by HIV-1 Vpr. (I. Chen) 

• First to characterize anti-HIV immune responses in identical twins (P. Krogstad/O. Yang)

• Among the first to develop a novel animal model with a humanized immune system to study HIV infection (C. Uittenbogaart, D. An, DS, I. Chen)

• Demonstrated high levels of interferon-alpha as observed in later stages of HIV infection interfere with human T cell regeneration (C. Uittenbogaart, B. Blom)

• First to identify and clone two receptors for Nipah virus (B. Lee)

• Among the first to show rectal microbicide efficacy in non-human primates (P. Anton)

• Among the first to measure HIV specific mucosal responses to systemic HIV vaccines (P. Anton/B. Jamieson/O. Yang)

• Developed new definition of vaccine responses (B. Jamieson, P. Anton, O. Yang)

• Established the consistent role of epitope escape mutations in decay and ineffectiveness of CTL responses to HIV-1 infection  (B. Jamieson, O. Yang)

• First to show that the HIV reservoir does not decay in the gut (P. Anton)

• First to show that HIV is an inflammatory bowel disease (P. Anton)

• Among the first to develop an ex-vivo model of intestinal explants for pathogenesis and drug studies (P. Anton)

• Among the first to show the gut mucosa is highly vulnerable to HIV infection (P. Anton)

• Among the first to show the gut mucosa is highly vulnerable to HIV infection (P. Anton)

• Investigated the outcome of a highly successful Nurse Case-Managed Program on TB Chemoprophylaxis among Homeless Adults (A. Nyamathi)

• Determined the percent of HCV positive homeless adults who were found to have HCV in their semen (A. Nyamathi)

• Assessed the perceptions of homeless adults and youth (Dr Koniak Griffin) in LA and high risk populations in India about the prospect of enrolling in a future HIV vaccine study (A. Nyamathi)

• First to report that, regardless of ethnicity, one in two HIV positive women age 18 or younger have a history of sexual abuse, compared to a one in three incidence among HIV negative women (G.Wyatt)

• First to report that HIV-positive African-American and Latina women with histories of sexual violence were more likely than a control group to reduce HIV sexual risks and symptoms of PTSD, depression and sexual trauma (G.Wyatt)

• Received 5 years of funding to develop a NIMH funded Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental health Disparities (G.Wyatt)

• First to report that, regardless of sexual orientation, HIV positive men and women want full access to health care and treatment, including stem cell therapies (G. Wyatt/W. King)

• First to indicate that African American men who have sex with men and are HIV positive report a one in four likelihood that they experienced sexual abuse before age 18 (G. Wyatt)

• Assumed leadership roles in the NIH AIDS Clinical Trials Networks including the HIV Prevention Trials Network (T. Coates), IMPAACT (Y. Bryson and Nielsen), ACTG (J. Currier), AIDS Malignancy Consortium or AMC (R. Mitsuyasu), and the Microbicides Trials Network (I. McGowan).