The HIV Cure Research Center organizes every year in September 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 COVID19 and a symposium cannot be organized as before. Therefore, we decided to switch to a hybrid HIV-COVID19 online symposium in which we discuss key aspects of COVID19 pathogenesis and HIV cure.

We will walk you through the basic principles of COVID19 pathophysiology, animal models for COVID19 and COVID19 protection by nanobodies and a vaccine.

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 COVID19 hybrid symposium will comprehensively summarizes the state of the art in COVID19 and HIV cure strategies.