Episode 39 – Preview of 2025 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) with Dr Diane V. Havlir
In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Diane Havlir, Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. Dr Havlir currently serves as Chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2025 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) and joins Dr Saag to provide a preview of CROI 2025. Dr Havlir provides an overview and history of CROI along with a summary of how the program is developed. Dr Saag and Dr Havlir review why CROI is unique among scientific meetings: leading scientific advances, poster sessions, and the focus on supporting new investigators. They also discuss expected hot topics from CROI such as: HIV treatment and cure, STI prevention, weight management, aging and HIV, as well as pediatric and adolescent care. Dr Saag and Dr Havlir provide an overview of resources that will be available to those who will not attend CROI in person. Finally, they discuss the value of CROI during a challenging time for all involved in the field of HIV research, care, and treatment.
Episode 40 – HIV Cure Research: State of the Art and Navigating Presentations at CROI 2025 with Dr Joseph J. Eron, Jr
In this episode of Going anti-Viral, Dr Michael Saag speaks with Dr Joseph Eron, Professor of Medicine at University of North Carolina (UNC) about the topic of his upcoming presentation at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) 2025: HIV Cure Research: State of the Art and Navigating Presentations at CROI 2025. Dr Eron discusses the state of HIV cure research including a detailed discussion of why it has been so difficult to develop a cure for HIV. Dr Saag and Dr Eron discuss the difference between HIV cure and functional cure and provide a detailed overview of cure research efforts looking at blocking and locking HIV in human DNA. Dr Saag and Dr Eron also discuss the potential for “molecular scissors” (CRISPR-Cas9) to cure HIV. Finally, they provide an overview of cure research that will be presented at CROI, highlighting the plenary presentation by Dr Ole Søgaard at CROI on Monday March 10 entitled HIV Cure: A Translational Research Perspective. For more information about the topic of this episode, listen to an earlier episode of Going anti-Viral where Dr Saag discusses Vaccine Development with Dr Richard Koup, see links in the resources below.