Timothy Brown, a source of inspiration

From IrsiCaixa we want to express our condolences for the loss of Timothy, the very first person cured of HIV, who was (and always will be) a source of motivation for those living with HIV, as well as everyone working to find a cure.

Timothy’s case

Timothy was diagnosed with HIV in 1995 and in 2007 developed a leukemia that required an allogeneic stem cell transplantation. The exceptionality of his case was that, after the treatment, he not only had the leukemia gone into remission, but Timothy had also been cured of HIV. This was possible thanks to a donor with a natural mutation in the gene CCR5 that conferred cell resistance to HIV infection. His case ignited hope into the scientific world opening new research fields in all centers (such as IrsiCaixa) based in finding an HIV cure for everyone. Sadly, this year the leukemia resurfaced and Timothy died this 29th October 2020.

A milestone in the HIV field

Timothy has been key for all those living with HIV. He became an active public figure in the HIV/AIDS community giving support to many projects and sharing hope for a wide world cure.

Timothy was also motivation for scientists and inspired the creation of the IciStem consortium, co-leaded by IrsiCaixa and aimed at studying the effect of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in people with HIV who suffer from malignant hematological diseases. He was actively involved in the project as member of the community board, and was very enthusiastic about the two other IciStem patients that have experienced and HIV remission after treatment interruption.

Once he said “I did not want to be the only person in the world cured of HIV; I wanted other HIV+ patients to join my club. I want to dedicate my life to supporting research to search for a cure or cures for HIV!”. And that’s what we are going to do; keep researching!