New strategies against HIV through antibody engineering

The research aims to develop longer-lasting therapies and new vaccination strategies.
 

World AIDS Day is celebrated on December 1st.

On World AIDS Day, the Biofisika Institute (CSIC, EHU) reaffirms its commitment to research aimed at improving the effectiveness of HIV treatments. The scientific team, led by Ikerbasque researchers Edurne Rujas and Pablo Carravilla, is working on the design of optimized antibodies through molecular engineering—a strategy that seeks to overcome one of the greatest challenges in the fight against the virus: its high variability.

The project focuses on studying how antibodies interact with a conserved region of HIV, identifying the key elements that determine their neutralizing capacity in order to design improved antibodies and use that information to develop more effective vaccines. “Our goal is to strengthen the immune response against parts of the virus that hardly change, which opens the door to longer-lasting therapies and new vaccination strategies,” explains Edurne Rujas.

To achieve this, the team is also developing advanced applications of super-resolution microscopy, capable of visualizing particles as small as viruses and antibodies. These tools allow researchers to measure how antibodies bind to the virus and understand how their biophysical properties influence this process.

This approach not only provides fundamental knowledge about virus-antibody interactions but also lays the groundwork for designing more effective treatments and innovative vaccines. “These new technologies help us visualize what was until recently invisible,” emphasizes Pablo Carravilla.