Prof. Amalio Telenti, Full Professor

Institute of Microbiology Rue du Bugnon 48 CH-1011 Lausanne Tel: +41 21 314 05 50 Fax: +41 21 314 40 95 E-mail: amalio.telenti@chuv.ch 3 post-doctoral fellows, 3 doctoral students

Research activities :

• Host Genomics and susceptibility to HIV infection

Research key words :

• HIV, pharmacogenetics, genomics

Link to our webpage

Humans are not equal in terms of susceptibility to infection to HIV, or in the rate of disease progression. This is evidenced by the identification of individuals that remain seronegative despite of multiple exposures to HIV-infected partners, and by the existence of the so called «long-term progressors».

Our laboratory studies the genetic variants that are associated with these differences in susceptibility. Various approaches are currently used:

1. Genome-wide association studies on human populations.
2. Transcriptome analysis of individuals having complete genome-wide genotype data.
3. Evolutionary genetic assessment of proteins involved in the viral life cycle and in innate immunity and defense. This includes the reconstruction of ancestral proteins, and structural analysis of protein differences among humans and non-human primates.

The laboratory is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, by the Center for HIV/AIDS vaccine immunity, and by the Swiss HIV Cohort Study.

References :

• Loeuillet C, et al. In vitro whole-genome analysis identifies a susceptibility locus for HIV-1. PLoS Biol. 2008 Feb;6(2):e32.

• Goldschmidt V, et al. Antiretroviral activity of ancestral TRIM5alpha. J Virol. 2008 Mar;82(5):2089-96.

• Fellay J, et al. A whole-genome association study of major determinants for host control of HIV-1. Science. 2007 Aug 17;317(5840):944-7.