In a project funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, Doris Wilflingseder investigates the initial stages of infection – the time span when the immune system might still stop HIV.
“HIV has been intensively investigated in research labs all over the world for more than 30 years”, says Doris Wilflingseder, and throughout that time it has been resisting effective treatment. “The virus mutates incredibly fast and plays a cat-and-mouse game with our immune system”, adds Wilflingseder, a researcher at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Within the context of the FWF-funded project HIV infection and transmission close to reality, the immunologist heads a research group which works on describing the interaction of the virus with the immune system – before the immune deficiency spreads and the body might still defend itself against the virus.
