The reservoir of latently infected cells is the primary barrier to cure of HIV. These cells persist for decades despite potent antiretrovirals that suppress virus to undetectable levels. We have previously found that the reservoir is mostly clonal. Paradoxically, host immune cells perpetuate HIV by dividing, and their faithful copying mechanisms create HIV clones in numbers far beyond what would be expected by error prone viral replication. Here I will discuss the ecology of HIV clonality during ART, how ecology shifts over time before and during ART, as well as how and when the reservoir is created. These modeling results pave the way for a unified model of both viral and evolutionary dynamics for HIV and the reservoir.

This seminar is jointly run by CMM, CAMBAM and the University of Waterloo.