The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is providing grants to three research teams working on strategies to eradicate HIV from its reservoirs in the body, according to an NIH statement. The teams will receive more than $14 million per year for up to five years for their cure research. Funding beyond the first year is subject to availability of appropriations. Each team is working on a separate approach for expunging latent HIV from the reservoirs where it hides from current antiretroviral therapies.

The teams include: the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, collaborating with Sangamo Biosciences; the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, collaborating with Merck Research Laboratories; and the University of California at San Francisco and the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute of Florida, collaborating with Merck Research Laboratories. Sangamo and Merck will not receive federal funds.

To read the NIH statement, click here.

To read more details from AIDSmeds, click here.