An idea is ripe

The virologist Karin Metzner is doing research on a novel gene therapy. The approach has great potential when it comes to treating diseases like HIV.

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Infection with HIV has lost its terror. These days it can be readily treated. Even so, those affected have to take medication their whole life long. This is also the case for 42-year-old Stefan Camenisch*. A mix of various drugs slows the progression of the disease, and his life expectancy isn’t reduced.

Karin Metzner wants to make the treatment of HIV even better. The Professor or Medical Virology aims to control HI viruses without drugs. She and her group at the Department of Infectious Diseases and Hospital Epidemiology at University Hospital Zurich (USZ) are investigating a novel gene therapy. “The HI virus multiplies by using a protein of specific human immune cells,” she explains. She intends to genetically modify this protein in such a way that the HI virus can no longer dock onto it. Given that this protein is vital for the body, she has to proceed with care.

Karin Metzner and the microbiologist Christian Behrens from the University of Jena had begun developing this promising gene therapy more than ten years ago. Until recently, however, they had lacked the technology enabling the cell’s genome to be modified at the right place. The new CRISPR technology, so-called gene scissors, is now bringing Metzner’s HIV research a decisive step forward. With the support of Novartis Research Foundation’s FreeNovation program, she has therefore resumed her project.

Currently Metzner’s work consists of fundamental research in the lab. But if the approach is proven in animal experiments and clinical trials, the novel therapy has great potential – not only for HIV. “Proteins are involved in the development of various diseases caused by viruses,” explains Metzner. She hopes that her research will lay the foundation for novel treatment of numerous viral diseases – and make the quality of life of people like Stefan Camenisch even better.

*anonymized/symbolic image

100% financed

Novartis Research Foundation’s FreeNovation program