CIHR funding HIV research in Montreal

Several Montreal research institutions are getting substantial funding to study HIV/AIDS.

On Thursday Health Minister Rona Ambrose was in Montreal to announce that the University of Montreal and the IRCM were getting $8.7 million to work toward a cure for HIV.

Researchers based at Ste.Justine's hospital will get $2 million to study mother-to-child transmission of the virus.

Eric Cohen of the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montreal (IRCM) is the leader of the CanCURE research team, which will be looking at how HIV can lie dormant despite continued treatment. His goal is to offer therapies that can be tested on humans.

At Ste.Justine's hospital Hugo Soudeyns will be looking at latency in HIV and how the virus is transmitted from mother to child. Soudeyns will also attempt to determine the best age to begin giving antiretroviral medication.

The funding is provided by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR) and the International AIDS Society (IAS).