The Harvard AIDS Institute announced last week that its scientists have achieved two breakthroughs in the battle against HIV subtype C (HIV-C).

The research, published in the Journal of Virology, trumpets Harvard’s creation of the first infectious molecular clone and the first SHIV chimera of the African based HIV subtype C clone.

Max Essex, chair of the Harvard AIDS Institute, believes these new discoveries are substantial because they will reveal, “why this subtype appears to replicate and mutate far faster than any other HIV subtypes.”

For Thumbi Ndung’u, a research associate at the AIDS Institute, these discoveries “[allow] us to take apart the virus and understand the contribution of each of its specific building blocks.” He hopes it will also allow the scientists to “[develop] new HIV-1 vaccination strategies.”

The Institute’s findings are all the more significant because subtype C is considered one of the most infectious strains of HIV—it is responsible for over 50 percent of all cases of HIV worldwide, and is the most prevalent strain in Sub-Saharan Africa.

—Compiled by Garrett M. Graff and Nicole M. Cederblom.

—Staff writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu.