Luis J. Montaner, D.V.M., D.Phil.

At Wistar, the Montaner laboratory focuses on immune system-based research using laboratory models of virus infection, animal models of infection and or cancer, and clinical cohort studies to provide a clinic-to-bench research program that informs new strategies to combat HIV and or cancer.  The Montaner lab is also a leading center for a Martin Delaney Collaboratory focused on HIV cure-directed research (see beat-hiv.org).  Patient and animal-based collaborative studies —and thus, their impact—extend from Philadelphia to multiple US states for coast-to-coast, Puerto Rico, Mexico, South America, and Southern Africa, and focus on:

• identifying new strategies to reverse mechanisms of immunodeficiency caused by viral infection and/or cancer processes via testing new immune enhancing products.
• exploring new ways to augment HIV-1 control beyond current therapies in order to achieve durable remission and or permanent control of infection without the need for continued antiretroviral therapy. 
• understanding the natural ability of our immune system to respond to viruses and comparing that to the immune response of a rare subset of people who are exposed to—yet uninfected by—HIV-1 or are infected yet retain an inherent ability to control their HIV-1 infection.