Resisting infection

Long before scientific research caught up, Stephen Crohn understood that his body had a unique resistance to HIV. While he lived through the AIDS epidemic, witnessing the death of his partner and many friends, Crohn himself remained uninfected despite being sexually active. This led him to reach out to researchers in search of an explanation. His breakthrough came in the 1990s when immunologist Bill Paxton and colleagues identified a gene mutation in Crohn that blocked HIV from entering his cells. This discovery was pivotal in advancing HIV treatment. It inspired the creation of maraviroc, a drug that replicates this mutation's effects, helping to control the virus in infected individuals. Additionally, there's emerging evidence that bone marrow transplants from donors with two copies of this rare mutation, found in about one percent of people, could potentially cure HIV infection.