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Rachel Torrez, Jarrod S. Johnson, and Janet Iwasa (University of Utah, Department of Biochemistry)
The Science of HIV project aims to use animated visualizations and illustrations to captivate, inform, and educate diverse audiences as well as showcase the work done by HIV researchers from around the globe. Our current project focuses on animating how HIV-1 is detected by the innate immune system. During infection, HIV-1 converts its RNA into double-stranded DNA through the process of reverse transcription. In rare cases when capsid uncoating happens too early, viral DNA can be detected by the innate immune sensor, cGAS. The underlying mechanisms that regulate how HIV-1 DNA is detected by cGAS are still largely unknown, but ongoing research is beginning to identify factors that may contribute to early capsid destabilization, thereby exposing HIV-1 DNA to cGAS. Our goal in animating this pathway is to combine currently available data from both in vitro and in vivo studies to identify and explore possible hypotheses related to the cGAS-STING pathway. These results will ultimately be shared on the Science of HIV website and will be updated to accurately reflect new breakthroughs being made as we continue to learn how HIV-1 is detected by the innate immune system.