NEWS
2010 - 12 - 13 Young Investigator Award at the CROI conference for Dr. Andy Chevigné
Dr. Andy Chevigné, research scientist at the Laboratory of Retrovirology CRP-Santé will be awarded in February 2011 the price of Young Investigator for his poster and research on HIV-1 entry inhibition conducted at the Laboratory of Retrovirology. The CROI conference (Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections) is a scientifically focused meeting of the world’s leading researchers working to understand, prevent, and treat HIV/AIDS and its complications. The goal of this conference is to provide a forum for translating laboratory and clinical research into progress against the AIDS epidemic.
Although the current antibody engineering (Fab, scFv and VH fragment libraries) has shown its merits, there are some important shortcomings to the actual technology resulting in serious obstacles for the development of immunotherapeutics. The size reduction of the antibody is currently limited at the level of VH and VH like fragments. Therefore, the Immuno-Virology unit of the Laboratory of Retrovirology has initiated a research program « Exploring HIV entry with human immune HCDR3 repertoires » under the direction of Dr. Sabrina Deroo to further reduce the size of the antibodies and for the development of better and more affordable new antibody based therapeutics. Dr Andy Chevigné successfully screened heavy chain CDR3 phage libraries derived from the immune repertoire of a non-progressing HIV-1 patient (Long Term Non-Progressor). A cyclic peptide binding with high affinity and specificity to the HIV-1 envelope protein gp120 was identified. Interestingly, this peptide displayed inhibitory properties against virus mainly detected at the late stage of the infection (onset of AIDS).
These original results were selected for a poster presentation entitled “Identification of a HIV-1 neutralizing antibody fragment from the heavy chain CDR3 repertoire of a Long Term Non Progressor “ ( A. Chevigné, S. Delhalle, C. Verschueren, N. Beaupain, M. Counson, J.M. Plesséria, C. Devaux, J.C. Schmit and S. Deroo) at the 18th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston, Massachusetts 27th of February to the 2nd Of March, 2011. Moreover, Dr. Andy Chevigné will be awarded by the Young Investigator Award for his poster and research performed at LRTV.