01 Dec JOEP LANGE & JACQUELINE VAN TONGEREN JUNIOR INVESTIGATOR AWARD

Congratulations to Dr. Carla Ribeiro—this year’s recipient of the Joep Lange & Jacqueline van Tongeren Junior Investigator Award for outstanding work in the study of HIV. The award was presented by Timothy Brown and Peter Reiss at the closing session of the Netherlands Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Epidemiology, Prevention and Treatment (NCHIV) on 21 November 2017.

Carla Ribeiro has recently been awarded a tenure-track position at Academic Medical Centre (AMC). In 2013, Ribeiro was awarded a VENI postdoctoral grant on the function of autophagy on HIV-1 infection, which enabled her to establish a novel research line on autophagy within the department of Experimental Immunology at the AMC. As a direct result of her VENI project, Ribeiro and her team discovered an important role of the autophagy receptor TRIM5α in restricting HIV-1 transmission by the type of cell called Langerhans cells during sexual contact, both heterosexual and homosexual. In 2016, this research conducted by Ribeiro and co-researchers at the AMC was published in the scientific journal Nature. This breakthrough discovery opens prospects to develop novel therapies targeting autophagy to boost antiviral immunity and intervene in acute and chronic HIV-1 infections.

Carla Ribeiro was interviewed by the Dutch TV broadcaster AT5 earlier this year about her work as a HIV researcher. Watch the interview here.

About the Joep Lange and Jacqueline van Tongeren Junior Investigator Award
The scientific programme committee of NCHIV selects the best abstract submitted by a junior scientist to be considered for the Joep Lange & Jacqueline van Tongeren Junior Investigator Award. The winning abstract author is given the opportunity to present their abstract as an oral presentation during the NCHIV conference. The winner receives a prize to the value of €1000 to be spent on a study or conference trip of their choice. The winning author is announced during the final conference session.