The Fort Lauderdale-based Campbell Foundation’s Board of Directors recently approved a $100,000 grant to Dr. Anne-Sophie Kuhlmann. She is a senior staff scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Hans-Peter Kiem, holder of the Stephanus Family Endowed Chair for Cell and Gene Therapy, at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle, Wash.

Kuhlmann is developing a gene therapy that would modify the immune system’s B cells to produce highly potent antibodies against HIV sustainably. If successful, it could control the infection without requiring lifelong antiretroviral therapy.

That’s an ambitious goal. According to HIV.gov, as of the end of 2023, 77% of all people living with HIV (30.7 million people) were accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally. ART is taken long-term and reduces the risk of HIV transmission.

“We plan to develop and evaluate therapeutic viral vectors called ‘engineered virus-like particles’ to specifically target and edit B cells inside the body,” said Kuhlmann, in a news release.

The idea is to create a one-shot treatment that would be easier to administer to people.

“This approach would not only broaden access to treatment to all people living with HIV-1, including in low- and middle-income countries, but would also accelerate the development of B cell therapies for infectious diseases and other chronic diseases requiring repeated injections of proteins,” Kuhlmann said.

Several members of The Campbell Foundation’s Peer Review Board were impressed with the scope of the research.

“It is a proof-of-concept project that will pave the way for a bigger goal, not only in the HIV field,” said one reviewer who voted in favor of the grant. 

The grant award comes as The Campbell Foundation celebrates its 30th anniversary. It has given away more than $12.5 million, with more than $1.5 million going to direct services.

“It has been in the spirit of our founder, the late Richard Campbell Zahn, that we continue to strive to find a cure for HIV/AIDS,” said Executive Director Ken Rapkin in a news release.