Every year in September, the HIV Cure Research Center organizes a lively symposium in the picturesque city of Ghent, Belgium. Since the pandemic outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the lab has invested heavily in the initiation of key research in COVID-19 and a symposium can not be organized as before. Therefore, we decided to switch to a hybrid HIV-SARS-CoV-2 online symposium, which will take place the 22nd of October, in which we discuss key aspects of COVID-19 pathogenesis and HIV cure.

We will walk you through the basic principles of COVID-19 pathophysiology, animal models for COVID-19 and COVID-19 protection by nanobodies and a vaccine. In addition, we will of course focus on HIV reservoirs and cure.

Latent HIV reservoir is able to refuel infection once the treatment is stopped and therefore a better understanding of both, the composition and the size of this reservoir will be important to aid the development of cure strategies as well as to monitor the efficacy of therapeutic interventions to reduce the HIV reservoir. Therefore, we will address key aspects of viral rebound and how to monitor it. Finally, we will discuss the status of HIV cure clinical trials with emphasis on novel immunotherapeutic approaches.

The HIV and SARS-CoV-2 hybrid symposium will comprehensively summarizes the state of the art in COVID-19 and HIV cure strategies.