 Hi everyone, my name is right after Rossi and today I'm excited to share with you the hope cab animation This is something we've been working on for months, and it was actually released last week I've been so busy so swamped with projects and different things that I didn't have the chance to put this video together Until now for those of you who have been watching my videos in the recent months You're aware and you know what the hope cab is. I'm a part of the hope cab I'm a co-chair of the hope cab and hope stands for HIV obstruction by programmed epigenetics It sounds wordy and confusing, but it's really not we're working with HIV on a genetic level to try to alter its DNA so that we can remove Needing to take medication ARV ART and the HIV will be trapped in its state that it's in no longer able to Replicate and then hopefully at that point we can snip snip snip and cut it out of the body That's essentially in a very grotesquely generalized way of putting it what the hope cab is all about It's an initiative investigating a block lock X size approach to cure HIV And again those of you who watched my videos recently You are familiar with block lock X size and I did a video recently about the care project CAIR Which stands for community arts integrated research if you haven't seen that video yet check it out We did this arts project with a bunch of HIV CAIR researchers and scientists and then I got their input on the ART they created It was super interesting. I learned a bunch of key terms and words and different things so check it out if you haven't already and Yeah, and then we'll get into this animation so the the purpose of the animation is to take something that's otherwise kind of complex and hard to understand by the general public and Dilute it down into a very simple manner so that those people who aren't familiar with HIV cure research or Languages and vocabulary and all this stuff that surrounds it are able to watch this Fairly simple animation and get a general grasp of what it is that the hope cab and its and its researchers and scientists are aiming to achieve Let me share a little bit about this from our press release So the hope collaboratory is one of ten Martin Delaney Collaboratories to develop cures for HIV led by primary investigators. Dr. Melanie Dr. Lisch and Dr. Susanna. I would say their last names, but I don't know how to pronounce them all So I'm just gonna do first names on all of them. The hope includes 16 institutions around the world So it's actually a global organization one pharmaceutical company and various community partnerships effective communication between Scientists and community members is crucial for the successful advancement of research It's not just HIV researchers and scientists in a bubble doing their thing and let them figure it out And then we'll have a cure it needs to be this open dialogue between community and research Together in order to get there at least faster than we would otherwise And so the hope animation was led by dr. Vivian Avellino Silva Well, love you dr. Vivian the video combines the science of Vlock lock excise with the artistic talent of community members So I had the privilege of doing the voiceover for this, so I'm really excited to share it with you Let's go ahead and watch it now and then we'll talk after hope hope hope is a Feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen But wait hope also stands for HIV obstruction by programmed epigenetics This is the name of a study including a team of enthusiastic researchers in 16 institutes six countries and five continents Investigating a cure for HIV using a novel approach known as block lock excise and what exactly is this strategy? Let's start by understanding that HIV has the ability to infect many cells in the body and use the cells machinery to produce new copies of itself Which will then infect more cells leading to damages in our immune system as well as some organs It can also infect and hide in certain cells Treatment with HIV medications available today aims to block the virus from creating new viruses infecting other cells and causing more damage to the immune system and other organs When accessible today's treatments are highly effective and enable people living with HIV to live long and healthy lives However, today's treatments are still not the same as a cure The virus remains in the body and can still reproduce at very low levels even under treatment in certain body tissues This can sometimes lead to long-term complications that may still occur more often in people living with HIV and cannot be eliminated with standard antiretroviral treatment Moreover currently available HIV treatments cannot remove viruses that are hidden within cells These hidden or latent viruses are mostly harmless as long as a person remains on HIV therapy The problem is if treatment is interrupted these latent viruses will sooner or later reactivate to create new viruses leading to progressive disease This means that today a person living with HIV must remain on treatment indefinitely Interestingly, some viruses related to HIV have long been infecting humans and our ancestors over time becoming Inactivated and permanently integrated in our own DNA Remarkably about 8% of human DNA is made up of these viral fossils and some of these remnants have even become beneficial to human health What if we could somehow make HIV behave like these ancient inactivated viruses? That's what the block lock exercise approach is trying to do to transform HIV from a partially latent virus into an inactivated and harmless remnant in human cells What are scientists in the hope study doing? one Using drugs that block elements needed for HIV to reactivate from its hidden state two editing gene sequences Making it harder for latent HIV to be switched on and turning HIV into a defective virus No longer capable of producing new copies of themselves to infect other cells three removing remnants of the silenced virus for Finally, the hope study is also engaging Scientists the HIV community and community advocates together Inspiring a fresh breath of hope in the search for a cure for HIV The hope study is funded by the National Institutes of Health NIH as one of ten research Collaboratories comprising the Martin Delaney collaboratories for HIV cure research The study is led by researchers at Glaston Institutes, Scripps Research, Florida and Wild For Now Medicine This video is the fruit of the hope community engagement team the hope community advisory board and hope ambassadors Alright, what did you guys think? Hopefully, I mean at the end of the day more than just being entertained more than just liking the video I hope that you were able to understand How we broke down block lock excise and are able to walk away with a more of a fundamental understanding of what it is that the hope cab is doing and Hopefully you can share that animation with other people and they can also get a general understanding of what we're doing as well and and kind of feel like a part of this because it's it's a community It's a community endeavor and we should all be excited for each other and with each other as we're working towards an HIV cure So as I said, I've been really busy this past week or so because I really wanted to get this video out last week on the same day that we released the press release and the official video but I've had so much going on and not only that but Bo my boyfriend for those of you aren't aware Recently got a new job. We were supposed to go on a trip to the Netherlands together For two weeks. We've been planning it for a year. I kid you not for a full year we've been planning and getting excited and This new job was like sorry. We need you before then we can't work with you at all on that So I literally had to cut him out of vacation plans last minute. I'm going solo I'm doing my own eat pray love moment. So this is gonna be exciting kind of scary kind of intimidating, but I think it's gonna be really good for me. And so I literally had to take him to the airport on Tuesday, which was today is Wednesday. That was yesterday And had to say goodbye to him for the next eight months. Just like that. It just happened so quick Um, I wasn't really like neither of us are we're really ready for that It's kind of a whirlwind And he's being thrown into this new job In the Mediterranean. So he's going to be over there for eight months and then I'm going to be here with dookie And so yeah, that's the situation We're you know, uh making it work next week. I'm going to the Netherlands I haven't seen my family in over 15 years. I can't believe That it's been that long It it's heartbreaking in a way and it makes me sad to think that I haven't been able to see my family for so long And then when I go see them, they're going to be like So much older But I'm thankful that I can go now that I can afford to go And I'm really really excited to not only see them but to see my homeland. This is That's where I'm from. I was born in the Netherlands. I was born in Utrecht And um, I just want to go back and I want to eat good food and drink and relax and vlog for you guys Uh, I I reached out to adam castillo Who is the London patient? I didn't interview with him Last year, I'll put a card up to that if you haven't watched it. It's a really good interview So check it out and because I know that he has contacts in the Netherlands And he's actually going to be there when I'm there So we'll link up or something and you know try to put something something together for you guys And um, he connected me with a hiv organization there reached out to them were connected and I'm hoping that I can Go see them at least one day while I'm there and do maybe an interview or something and Share that with you all so I'm excited about that. It's gonna be fun And yeah, there's just so many great things that are happening. I had the podcast recently that I released Um, I don't think there's anything on youtube, but um all my other socials. I put a little teaser to the podcast You should listen to it. It's really great. Again, dr. Vivian Put that together. It was I think like six episodes total, but this one Last episode was done in English. So it's really really cool. I urge you to check it out Actually, you know what? I'm gonna save you the work. I'm gonna put the link to the podcast in the description below So check it out there Everything you need is going to be in the description below or in a card. So there you go Please like this video if you liked it Subscribe if you haven't already hit that bell so you get a notification you're supposed to whenever a new video gets posted and I'm I have like three or four interviews Under my belt already recorded film. They just need to be edited. They're gonna be coming out soon I'm gonna be filming more interviews. There's so much content that I'm working on this year. I'm so excited The ball is really rolling now folks I hope you're ready for those of you who've been waiting for me to get back on the gravy train And do all this hiv content. I hope you're ready You better have your alarm set for when my videos come out because I will see you soon. All right. Cheers. Peace