NYU Researchers Discover Protein That May Curtail The Spread Of HIV

February 15th, 2012 by Lily Altavena

The Times of India reported on Monday that a group of NYU researchers may have made a major medical breakthrough, finding a protein that would stop HIV from spreading in the body.

The researchers, from NYU Langone, looked at a protein called SAMHD1, which protects cells from HIV contamination.  They recently published their study in Nature Immunology, which explains their research. While scientists are still far from a cure to AIDS, this research will likely help aid the discovery of a way to slow the onset of AIDS.

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80WSE Gallery Fights Back Against AIDS

February 8th, 2012 by Cara Cifferelli

The Steinhardt School Department of Art and Art Professions building on Washington Place is like Silver’s quiet, reserved aunt. Rarely the center of attention and relevant to few, she is usually ignored as students rush between classes. But every so often, that aunt lets her radical, rebellious past shine through, and that past is manifested in the 80 Washington Square East Gallery, a Steinhardt run exhibition space. You may have noticed the 25 foot window installation facing WSP, with photos of anti-gay protesters and church sit-ins by gay couples glaring at the streets in blue and yellow. The show is “Gran Fury: Read My Lips,” and it chronicles the national reaction to the AIDS epidemic from 1981 to today.

Shocking and provocative, the exhibition gives visitors a visual history lesson. The first room represents America’s initial reaction to AIDS, and if it doesn’t make you want to write to your local congressman, we don’t know what will. Photos of Ronald Reagan laughing with other conservative politicians, next to captions about how they wanted to have HIV positive people tattooed on the arm and lower back to “warn” potential partners make the stomach turn. Read more…


Greenwich Village Residents Consider AIDS Memorial

October 26th, 2011 by Olivia Loving

With the recent completion of the 9/11 memorial, Manhattan is gearing for another venture: this time, an AIDS memorial in Greenwich Village. The project, discussed in a recent New York Times article, is not ready for construction, or even a formal contract: it has been thrown around as an idea since last spring.

The planned space is St. Vincent’s Triangle Park, a small section of underdeveloped land in the Village’s northwest corner. The location is appropriate: It neighbors the recently closed St. Vincent’s hospital which encountered some of the earliest recorded cases of AIDS.

Unlike typical memorials, this would focus not on a specific event, but on an entire pandemic. Few other memorials serve this purpose. Arguably, our history with AIDS could very well qualify as war: by the end of the 1980’s, 100,000 Americans had been diagnosed with the disease. And that’s just the recorded number.

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