PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Wistar Institute has secured a five-year, $17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the iCure Consortium, an ambitious initiative designed to develop personalized treatment regimens aimed at curing HIV.
Led by Luis J. Montaner, D.V.M., D.Phil., executive vice president of The Wistar Institute and director of its HIV Cure and Viral Diseases Center, iCure seeks to combine cutting-edge immunotherapies, precision medicine, and advanced cell engineering to pursue individualized cures.
“Today 38 million people still live with HIV worldwide, and 1.3 million contract the virus each year,” said Montaner. “For the first time, this grant brings our best team together working towards a cure tailored to each participant by pairing the latest in neutralizing antibody and cell-therapy breakthroughs against the unique, person-specific features of HIV.”
A Multi-Faceted Approach to Eradication
The iCure Consortium will test a six-pronged, personalized therapy aimed at eliminating the virus’s hidden reservoirs that persist despite antiretroviral treatment:
- Neutralizing Antibodies — Customized to each patient’s HIV strain to target vulnerabilities.
- mRNA Therapies — Leveraging RNA breakthroughs to enhance immune response.
- Viral Binders — Precision “homing devices” designed to locate and attach to infected cells.
- Engineered CAR-T and NK Cells — Genetically enhanced immune cells built to destroy infected targets.
- Latency-Reversing Drugs — Specialized compounds to “wake up” dormant HIV for immune clearance.
- Bispecific Binders — Tools that link immune cells directly to virus-infected cells, boosting elimination.
“Ending HIV demands more than management—it demands eradication,” said Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., iCure co-principal investigator, Nobel Laureate, and RNA pioneer at the University of Pennsylvania. “This project now allows us to apply our breakthroughs in RNA therapy as part of a cure-directed strategy.”
A National Collaborative Effort
The iCure Consortium builds on the foundation of the BEAT-HIV Martin Delaney Collaboratory, a Philadelphia-based initiative uniting more than 95 researchers worldwide. Alongside Wistar, participating institutions include:
- Johns Hopkins Medicine
- University of Pennsylvania
- Philadelphia FIGHT
- Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard
- George Washington University
- Duke University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Funded through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the iCure initiative represents one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to design a patient-specific path toward durable, drug-free remission.
Looking Ahead
Montaner described the NIH award as a “once in a lifetime opportunity” that leverages decades of HIV research while aligning the latest advances in immunology, genomics, and cell therapy.
“By the end of this study, we hope to have a process by which to identify the virus we need to go after in each person and a basis to design clinical trials choosing the best of these strategies to move forward,” Montaner said.
If successful, iCure could redefine HIV treatment, shifting the focus from long-term management to personalized cures capable of transforming millions of lives worldwide.
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