Are UC researchers any closer to finding a functional cure for HIV?

Published July 15, 2025 at 4:01 AM EDT

This 2011 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control shows HIV virions. On Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, scientists are reporting the first use of the gene-editing tool CRISPR to try to cure a patient's HIV infection by providing blood cells that have been altered to resist the AIDS virus.

A years-long study to try to find a functional cure for HIV didn’t work as researchers expected.

The University of Cincinnati researcher behind the study says he and his colleagues could be closer to success if they make some changes and try again.

But with federal funding cuts to HIV/AIDS research, will that happen?

On Cincinnati Edition, we talk with the researcher behind the study and a patient who took part in it.

Guests:

Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, vice chair for clinical research for internal medicine, University of Cincinnati
Carl Fox, Covington resident and TRAILBLAZER study participant
Jeffrey Crowley, director, Center for HIV and Infectious Disease Policy, the O'Neill Institute at the Georgetown University Law Center
Monica Gandhi, MD, director, UCSF-Bay Area Center for AIDS Research

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