New HIV Evolution Paper

From At-Risk Project to International Collaboration: Our New HIV-1 Evolution Paper Is Out!

I am pleased to share the publication of our new paper, “Multiple Infections, Recombination, and Hypermutation During a 12-Month Prospective Study of Five HIV-1 Infected Individuals,” now published in Microbiological Research (2026, DOI: 10.3390/microbiolres17020030).

Beyond the scientific findings themselves, this paper represents something I value deeply: the transformation of a complex, stalled research effort into a cohesive, high-quality, publishable study through sustained collaboration, coordination, and shared scientific responsibility across institutions and countries.

A Project That Nearly Didn’t Happen

This work began as a promising but fragile project. The data were rich, longitudinal, and rare—but the scope, technical demands, and fragmentation of effort across teams put the study at real risk of never reaching publication.

My role in this project went well beyond analysis. Together with Luiz Mario Janini, I took on the responsibility of consolidating authorship, harmonizing analytical approaches, ensuring methodological coherence, and driving the manuscript to completion. Our contributions were equivalent, and this is formally reflected in our shared senior authorship, mirroring how first authorship was likewise shared between a former student and postdoctoral researcher to accurately represent equal contributions.

This structure was intentional. It reflects a commitment to fairness, transparency, and intellectual honesty—values that matter as much to me as the results themselves.

Truly International, Truly Multi-Institutional Science

One of the strongest aspects of this paper is its genuinely international character. The collaboration brought together expertise in virology, clinical medicine, molecular biology, and bioinformatics across six institutions in Brazil and the United States:

1. Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, College of Computing and Informatics, University of North Carolina at Charlotte (USA)
2. Computational Intelligence to Predict Health and Environmental Risks (CIPHER) Center, UNC Charlotte (USA)
3. Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, Federal University of São Paulo (Brazil)
4. Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Division, Federal University of São Paulo (Brazil)
5. Laboratory of Medicine Laboratorial (LIM03), Hospital das Clínicas, University of São Paulo (Brazil)
6. Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (Brazil)

This breadth of institutions was not cosmetic—it was essential. The study required clinical insight, wet-lab expertise, and advanced computational and evolutionary analysis working together over a full year of longitudinal sampling.

Why This Work Matters Scientifically

Scientifically, the study provides a rare, fine-scale view of HIV-1 evolution within individuals over time, demonstrating how multiple infections, recombination, and APOBEC-mediated hypermutation interact dynamically inside real patients. By combining phylogenetics, recombination detection, and diversity analyses across multiple time points, the work underscores why single-snapshot studies often miss the true complexity of viral evolution.

More broadly, this paper reinforces a key message: understanding infectious disease dynamics requires integrated, cross-disciplinary approaches that respect both biological complexity and methodological rigor.

Alignment with CIPHER, BiG, and UNC Charlotte’s Mission

This collaboration exemplifies exactly the kind of research culture we are building at UNC Charlotte.

• CIPHER emphasizes data-driven, computational approaches to health and environmental risk, grounded in real-world impact. This study directly reflects that mission by applying rigorous computational analysis to clinically relevant infectious disease data.
• The Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics (BiG) is committed to interdisciplinary science that bridges computation, biology, and medicine. This paper is a concrete example of that bridge in action.
• UNC Charlotte’s strategic plan and institutional values emphasize global engagement, collaborative problem-solving, and research that addresses pressing societal challenges. An international HIV study built on equitable collaboration and shared leadership fits squarely within that vision.

Looking Forward

I am proud of this paper not only because of its findings, but because of how it was made. It stands as evidence that careful stewardship, collaborative leadership, and institutional alignment can rescue valuable science—and elevate it.

This is the kind of work I intend to keep building: rigorous, international, collaborative, and deeply aligned with the mission of UNC Charlotte.

Click to read the full paper (FREE)

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