[AIP Roster]

The AIDS Immunology and Pathogenesis [AIP] Study Section reviews applications related to the immunology and pathogenesis of HIV and related lentiviruses/retroviruses. Research includes cellular and humoral responses to HIV(and related lentiviruses), and mechanisms of transmission, initiation, and establishment of HIV infection at a cellular and tissue level, including animal models. This Study Section also reviews studies of immune mechanisms of host resistance, mechanisms of vaccine-induced immunity, and the effect of various infectious and other co-factors on pathogenesis, immune responses, and disease progression.

Specific areas covered by AIP:

• Innate immunity to HIV and related viruses
• Cellular and humoral immune responses to HIV and related viruses and mechanisms of host resistance
• Studies of mucosal immune responses to HIV and other lentiviruses
• Mechanisms of HIV antigen processing, and methods to augment particular immune responses and effector cells
• Mechanisms of HIV-mediated impairment of host responses, including HIV-related bone marrow dysfunction
• Immunological studies of transmission, initiation and establishment of HIV infection
• Immunopathogenesis and immunoregulation of HIV and related viruses
• Clinical immunology of HIV disease
• Molecular, cellular, and tissue-based studies of interactions between noninfectious [e.g., alcohol or other substance of abuse] or infectious co-factors [e.g., HIV and AIDS-associated opportunistic infections, with emphasis on HIV and disease progression]

AIP has the following shared interests within the AARR IRG:

• Studies that emphasize virology are assigned to AMCB; those with an emphasis on the host or host responses to the virus are assigned to AIP. Also, studies of animal models that emphasize the growth of the virus are reviewed in AMCB; those with an emphasis on the host response are reviewed in AIP. Studies of host factors for viral growth and how these can be co-factors for resistance/enhancement of infection or disease progression are reviewed in AMCB, whereas studies of immune- based factors are reviewed in AIP.
  
  
• NAED focuses on the interaction between HIV and [non- infectious] co-factors and how they combine to affect end-organ pathology, while AIP focuses on how these factors and co-factors combine to affect viral replication.
  
  
• Epidemiological studies that address questions of pathogenesis using molecular or biochemical assays are reviewed in AIP; population-based epidemiological studies that address more traditional epidemiological questions are reviewed in ACE.
  
  
• Applications that focus on animal models or vaccine development against HIV are appropriate for VACC study section.