The HPTN 071 (PopART) study involved more than one million people living in 21 communities in Zambia and South Africa, making it the largest HIV prevention trial to date.

Professor Sarah Fidler, Professor in HIV Medicine and communicable disease, led the international randomized SPARTAC trial testing the use of short-course ART in acute infection. Its findings led to a large cluster randomized trial among urban communities in Zambia and South Africa (HPTN 071 PopART), which tested the impact of a universal HIV test-and-treat programme to reduce HIV incidence.

Through the HIV CHERUB UK collaboration, with colleagues in Oxford, Kings, Cambridge and UCL, Imperial led several observational studies exploring measures of the HIV reservoir and immune responses among people living with HIV (HEATHER, PITCH). The team works very closely with community advocates, and public engagement is a core part of the CHERUB approach. More recently, the collaboration supported clinical trials of ART plus new therapies towards a cure for HIV. The RIVER trial explored a “kick and kill” approach among treated primary HIV infection. Currently the consortium is enrolling into a double blinded randomized trial testing HIV-specific broadly neutralizing antibodies (RIO) to control HIV, instead of antiretroviral therapy.