Citation | Michael Malim has made important contributions to our understanding of the molecular biology of HIV, being best known for his work on the critical viral regulatory/accessory genes rev and vif. His group identified the human anti-retrovirus gene product CEM15/APOBEC3G as a potent suppressor of HIV infection in the absence of its viral countermeasure, Vif. Recently he, together with others, demonstrated that CEM15/AP0BEC3G mediates its anti-viral effect by catalysing the deamination of deoxycytidine (dC) to deoxyuridine (dU) in viral replication intermediates - thereby defining a novel mechanism of innate viral resistance and indicating that Vif may be a logical therapeutic target. |