Microsoft Computer Research aids in new study on HIV

A pioneering collaborative study has discovered how the HIV virus evades the human body's immune system. The study involved scientists from the British Columbia CFE in HIV/AIDS, a Massachusetts General Hospital and Microsoft Research and Los Alamos National Laboratory -- used highly computer-intensive, cutting-edge statistical research methods to investigate how the HIV virus mutates to escape the body's immune system.

Researcher’s effectively mapped sites within certain HIV genes where variations can improve the virus's ability to escape immune recognition, showing this is predictable based upon the HIV patient's individual HLA class 1 profile. "This is a novel and advanced description of how the human immune system attacks the virus, and how it responds" says Dr. Richard Harrigan, Director of the Centre's Research Laboratories and study co-author. "While we always knew the body attacks the virus and the virus changes to dodge pressure, we're now more exact in knowing how this happens in people."

Algorithms developed by David Heckerman, lead researcher of the Machine Learning and Applied Statistics Group at Microsoft Research and study co-author, and his team allowed for more in-depth analysis of the data sets. "We created the software tools to help researchers exploit the power of computing to more quickly and accurately identify the crucial elements of an effective HIV vaccine," said Heckerman.

Study results demonstrate that population-based approaches could complement smaller functional studies by providing a whole-gene or whole-virus picture of immune escape. "Moving forward, we'll be expanding our genetic research to other HIV genes. We'll also be investigating the role of drug therapy," says Harrigan.

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Massachusetts General Hospital

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