BME Master's Defense Announcement for Aiswarya A Ramanujam (T. Kinzer-Ursem, advisor)

Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 9:30AM EST.

Title of thesis research: Assay Optimization for Point-Of-Care Detection of HIV Viral Load

Date: November 28, 2022

Time: 9:30AM EST (Indiana)

Location: Zoom Meeting Link - https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/94260591743?pwd=U3c3ekVlM01FTkJCT1V6bDlRdXZmdz09

Advisory committee: Dr. Tamara Kinzer-Ursem, Dr. Jacqueline Linnes, Dr. Robert V. Stahelin

Abstract: As of 2021, 38.4 million people worldwide are living with HIV, with Eastern and Southern Africa having the highest prevalence. The efficacy of treatment is determined by identifying acute HIV infections and prompting early Antiretroviral therapy initiation to achieve viral suppression and reduce the risk of transmission. Existing rapid tests that detect host antibodies are affected by long seroconversions which allow the viruses to remain undetected until long after infection. On the contrary, highly sensitive NAAT-based assays, serving as the gold standard for detection are restricted by their long turnaround time and high cost of implementation thus, restricting their use in low resource settings. Further, drug resistance cases and patient non-compliance to treatment may lead to HIV progression to AIDS; therefore, effective viral load monitoring is a critical component in the HIV care continuum.

To address the gaps in viral load monitoring and early HIV detection, I propose to develop assays for handheld self-test platforms to detect low concentrations of HIV via two different approaches: 1) I will optimize an existing NAAT-based assay to semi-quantitatively detect HIV particles that were spiked in clinical samples and 2) I will probe the binding kinetics of the HIV p24 - antibody interaction. Thus, I will lay the foundation for the development of a novel and highly sensitive p24 detection assay. Overall, this work will enable detection of early Acute HIV Infection detection as well as support PLHIV management, all while remaining connected to healthcare and provider support.