273: Evolving responses to HIV

Antibody that Neutralizes Most HIV Strains Described | Science Blog:

The body makes many antibodies against HIV, but they are almost always unable to neutralize the virus. Nonetheless, the immune systems of some patients with HIV have beaten the odds and have produced effective neutralizing antibodies.

Each person's response to HIV is a little different. The antibodies have random differences. When a response works well, its owner survives, leaves offspring, and the immune response spreads. This research aims to put the result of evolution into a bottle and sell it, to get that result out to people whose immune systems hadn't been designed well enough by evolution to react to HIV.