About

The Turner Laboratory is interested in evaluating the epigenetic pathways involved in HIV latency and developing and testing new latency reversal agents for HIV cure strategies. Through collaborations within the HIV Cure Center as well as with groups in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics and the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at UNC, we are using small molecule inhibitors, shRNA knockdown, and CRISPR-targeting to evaluate chromatin family proteins in HIV latency. They are also interested in a new class of molecules, bivalent chemical degraders, also known as PROTACs or proteolysis chimeras. These bivalent molecules link a known small molecule inhibitor to a ligand for an E3 ubiquitin ligase and can induce target-specific degradation and represent a new class of molecules for latency reversal cure strategies. New work in the lab surrounds the characterization of integration sites of intact proviruses in donor cells and the local chromatin environment surrounding these viruses. They have recently developed a new assay to map these viruses based on long-read nanopore sequencing. It is possible that detailed characterization of these sites could illuminate novel interactions with major transcriptional features, histone post-translational modifications (PTMs), and chromatin structure previously obscured by abundant defective proviruses and further our understanding of how chromatin restrictions govern latency and reactivation.

In the news

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  BET Degraders Reveal BRD4 Disruption of 7SK and P-TEFb is Critical for Effective Reactivation of Latent HIV in CD4+ T-cells

  HIV cure strategies that aim to induce viral reactivation for immune clearance leverage latency reversal agents to modulate host pathways, which directly or indirectly facilitate viral reactivation. Inhibition of BET (bromo and extra-terminal domain) family member BRD4 reverses HIV latency, but enthusiasm for the use of BET inhibitors in HIV cure studies is tempered by … Read more

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  IGHID Investigators Participate in CROI Conference

  Investigators with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases (IGHID) participated in the 2025 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in San Francisco, California, March 9-12. Following are some highlights.   In a CROI preview, Joe Eron, MD, was interviewed for the “Going Anti-Viral” IAS-USA podcast, discussing the state of HIV cure research … Read more

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  IAMIGHID: Spotlighting the HIV Cure Team

  HIV/AIDS has been around for approximately 40 years, but many researchers say the end is in sight. The question is, will it be in our lifetime or just around the corner? This is a spotlight on the HIV CURE Center, comprising approximately 55 researchers and students, featuring David Margolis, MD, the director, Nancie Archin, PhD, a … Read more

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