The HIV Cure Center may enroll a patient as soon as this week for its first study.
The center was created in May 2015, when UNC partnered with GlaxoSmithKline to develop a cure for AIDS.
Director David Margolis said the scientists began work in November after lab construction finished.
Margolis said the partnership between the University and GSK has helped with research.
“This is exactly what we hoped by bringing the two worlds together in this one physical space, so that’s been really very nice to see,” he said.
Margolis said the center hopes to start two new projects by the end of the year.
“We’ve had a lot of progress on a lot of fronts. Both basic science in the labs, discovery of some potential new approaches and moving some of the more validated approaches into clinical studies,” Margolis said.
The center is working on a combination study to reverse HIV latency and clear the remaining infection, he said. HIV latency is the virus’ second stage of infection.
“Many people have been working on this problem for a couple of years now, and although there’s been a lot of technical advances, no one has actually cleared persistent HIV infection in a measurable way … with the exception of giving someone a total bone marrow transplant,” he said.