A resident physician specializing in medical microbiology at the University of Toronto is using the beamline at the Canadian Light Source on the University of Saskatchewan campus to seek new insights into the HIV virus and to help understand how it evades immune surveillance.

Dr. Jonathan Cook is investigating key proteins on the HIV virus that are crucial to developing an effective vaccine.

He says quote “These proteins are so interesting because they are necessary for a virus to infect a human. By blocking their function, we can avert the kinds of infections that you see routinely.”

Using the beamline, Dr. Cook and his research team analyzed the outer proteins on the HIV virus. They found an area of one protein acts as a decoy, then diverting the immune system’s response towards a false target.

This allows the virus to infect human cells and to cause disease.

The researchers were able to confirm with the help of the CLS that the decoy area on HIV protein shapeshifts to entice an ineffective immune response.

Cook and his team hope that their research will provide a strategy for a future vaccine design that will avoid the region. This allowing for a better immune response and a more effective vaccine.