Dr. Qiankun Wang joins the Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as an Instructor as of October 2023. The HIV latent reservoir is the major barrier to an HIV cure. Developing a functional cure for HIV/AIDS requires further studies of HIV and host interactions. He is interested in innate immune responses to HIV-1 infection and its implications for HIV cure research. They discovered that targeting CARD8 inflammasome may be a promising way to eliminate residual HIV-1.
They showed that premature activation of intracellular HIV-1 protease by NNRTI triggers CARD8 sensing and killing of HIV-infected macrophages and CD4+ T cells. Recently, they found that the CARD8 inflammasome may drive CD4+ T cell depletion during pathogenic HIV/SIV infections. With the insights gained from these studies, they will use the humanized mouse model to further explore the molecular basis of fundamental questions regarding HIV-1 infection and develop novel immunologic strategies to eliminate HIV reservoirs. His key interests are Innate immune response to HIV infection and novel immunologic strategies to eliminate HIV reservoir.