Godelieve de Bree is an internist-infectologist and clinical immunologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers (AMC), where she has been dedicated to setting up and designing translational HIV research with a specific focus on acute HIV infection and the development of HIV cure treatment strategies since 2013. In addition, as part of her clinical work in (primary and secondary) immunodeficiency diseases, she studies these particular clinical diseases in more detail. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Godelieve is also the clinical principal investigator of several studies (the RECoVERED Cohort, the COSCA study) on the viro-immunological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2. She strives to make the connection between pre-clinical research in this area towards the clinical trials to investigate these avenues over the coming years.

Godelieve’s research in the field of acute HIV infection and development of HIV cure treatment strategies can be subdivided into three interconnected areas: (1) development and evaluation of a city-oriented implementation research approach of the HIV epidemic in Amsterdam; (2) translational studies on HIV cure and treatment of acute HIV infection; (3) studies on safety and efficacy of a preventive HIV vaccine.

The implementation research encompasses an innovative strategy to curb the HIV epidemic at a city level (in Amsterdam) of which she is the project leader. This initiative is the HIV Transmission Elimination Amsterdam (H-TEAM) initiative and within the H-TEAM initiative, she is leading several subprojects. Godelieve is the principal investigator of the acute HIV studies in the AMC and has initiated the Netherlands Cohort Study on Acute HIV Infection (NOVA study). She also leads the development of treatment strategies for cures in the AMC. This work is part of the Dutch NL4Cure collaboration. Finally, Godelieve is the clinical principal investigator of two phase 1 clinical trials that study the safety and efficacy of an HIV vaccine (in collaboration with the groups of R Sanders and M van Gils).