ENABLE talk: Predictors of HIV control and their use for HIV vaccine design
Christian Brander is an ICREA Research Professor at the Institut de Recerca de la Sida and an associate professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and at Vic University (UVic) in Spain.
He did his Master’s in Microbiology at the University of Bern, where he later obtained his PhD in Immunology studying exogenous antigen re-presentation on HLA class and T-cell hyper-reactivity to Penicillin. He then spent 13 years at Harvard University focusing on cellular immunity to viral infections and the impact that host genetics have on this immune response. He joined ICREA in 2008 with an appointment at IrsiCaixa Research Institute to continue his work on host genetics and the cellular immunity to viral infections.
His research focuses on the cellular immunity to viral infections in the immune compromised host.
In particular Brander’s lab is currently involved in: 1) Communicom analyses in HIV infection Life & Medical Sciences; 2) T cell immunity to HIV Life & Medical Sciences; 3) Anti-viral T cell immunity in the transplanted host Life & Medical Sciences; 4) HIV database at Los Alamos National Laboratories Life & Medical Sciences; 5) Therapeutic HIV vaccine clinical trials.
Furthermore, Prof. Brander also serves as a curator of the Los Alamos HIV Immunology database and as the scientific director of the HIVACAT program, the Catalan project for the development of effective preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccines, and he has been awarded twice the “Highly cited researcher” prize by Thompson Reuters.