Word: viruses
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Haseltine's research focuses on the genetic structure of the AIDS virus. "We analyze the virus' DNA sequence to get a blueprint on what the virus can do," explains Haseltine, who is an associate professor of pathology at the Med School. His lab has found a number of unusual genes on the AIDS virus including the tat-gene which makes it possible for the AIDS virus to replicate many times faster than the average virus, and the art-gene which regulates the virus' speed of reproduction...
...Myron E. Essex directs an effort at the School of Public Health studying the proteins in the virus and the antibodies produced in reaction to the proteins. His group has discovered several viruses related to HTLV-III which may be useful for developing a vaccine...
However researchers say that a vaccine may not be viable because of several major problems associated with the HTLV-III virus...
Essex studies the proteins which make up the virus and tries to determine which "structural parts of the virus are biologically significant." From his studies of HTLV-III relatives, "We hope to find a weakened form of the virus. The analogy is to smallpox and cowpox. Cowpox is harmless, but [exposure to it] is protective against smallpox," Essex says...
Earlier this spring, Essex and some researchers in Senegal, Africa, discovered that a large portion of the human population had been infected with a close relative of the AIDS virus. HTLV-IV, as the researchers dubbed the new virus, infects some human white blood cells, just like the AIDS virus, but with one crucial difference--the AIDS virus kills the white blood cells and HTLV-IV does not. Essex says he hopes to "use molecules from HTLV-IV to create a protective response" from the human immune system...