Anti-retroviral therapy has turned HIV into a chronic rather than deadly disease in the U.S. Life-long HIV infection, however, greatly increases the risk for a range of age-related diseases including cardiovascular disease (CVD). An estimated 78% of people living with HIV will be diagnosed with CVD by 2030. Chronic inflammation triggered by the body’s immune response to HIV infection contributes to CVD, but it’s not yet known which genes are altered in this immune response.

Robert Kaplan, Ph.D., has received a four-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to use single-cell sequencing methods to identify the genes that are over- or under-expressed in immune cells of people living with HIV. Researchers hope to find differences in blood cells that can be targeted by existing medicines or to identify new targets for which drugs can to be developed. Dr. Kaplan is professor of epidemiology & population health and the Dorothy and William Manealoff Foundation and Molly Rosen Chair in Social Medicine at Einstein. (1R01HL148094)