Christian Brander

Christian Brander

Institut de Recerca de la Sida - IrsiCaixa

Life & Medical Sciences

Christian Brander obtained his PhD in Immunology from the University of Bern and completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School focusing on T cell immunity to HIV. He joined ICREA in 2008 with an appointment at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute. He is a co-inventor of the HIV "HTI" immunogen, which is developed clinically by Aelix Therapeutics Inc. where he is a co-founder and CSO. He serves as a curator of the Los Alamos HIV Database and is an Associate Professor at the University of Vic.


Research interests

Our group aims to understand the cellular immunity to viral infections. Using complementary sets of immune analyses and integrated -omics approaches, we seek to identify functional correlates of virus control and to explore their underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. We combine cellular assays and methylome, communicome and transcriptomics analyses to assess to what degree and at what stages of different viral infections the effector function profiles of virus-specific T cells are epigenetically controlled. We also pay special attention to the effect of viral infections on neurological function.

Selected publications

– Olvera, Alex; Noguera-Julian, Marc; Kilpelainen, Athina; Romero-Martin, Luis; Prado, Julia G.; Brander, Christian 2020, ‘SARS-CoV-2 Consensus-Sequence and Matching Overlapping Peptides Design for COVID19 Immune Studies and Vaccine Development’, Vaccines, 8, 3, 444.

– Mothe, Beatriz; Brander, Christian 2020, ‘Small steps forward for HIV vaccine development’, Nature Medicine, 26, 4, 466–467.

– Rosas-Umbert, Miriam; Ruiz-Riol, Marta; Fernandez, Marco A.; Marszalek, Marta; Coll, Pep; Manzardo, Christian; Cedeno, Samandhy; Miro, Jose M.; Clotet, Bonaventura; Hanke, Tomas; Molto, Jose; Mothe, Beatriz; Brander, Christian 2020, ‘In vivo Effects of Romidepsin on T-Cell Activation, Apoptosis and Function in the BCN02 HIV-1 Kick&Kill Clinical Trial’, Frontiers In Immunology, 11, 418.

– Mothe, Beatriz; Rosas-Umbert, Miriam; Coll, et al 2020, ‘HIVconsv Vaccines and Romidepsin in Early-Treated HIV-1-Infected Individuals: Safety, Immunogenicity and Effect on the Viral Reservoir (Study BCN02)’, Frontiers In Immunology, 11, 823.

– Gallinaro, Alessandra; Borghi, Martina; Pirillo, Maria Franca; et al  2020, ‘Development and Preclinical Evaluation of an Integrase Defective Lentiviral Vector Vaccine Expressing the HIVACAT T Cell Immunogen in Mice’, Molecular Therapy-methods & Clinical Development, 17, 418 – 428.

– Silva-Arrieta, Sandra; Goulder, Philip J. R.; Brander, Christian 2020, ‘In silico veritas? Potential limitations for SARS-CoV-2 vaccine development based on T-cell epitope prediction’, Plos Pathogens, 16, 6, e1008607.

– Oriol-Tordera, Bruna; Berdasco, Maria; Llano, Anuska; et al  2020, ‘Methylation regulation of Antiviral host factors, Interferon Stimulated Genes (ISGs) and T-cell responses associated with natural HIV control’, Plos Pathogens, 16, 8, e1008678.

– Sekine, Takuya; Perez-Potti, Andre; Son Nguyen; G. et al  2020, ‘TOX is expressed by exhausted and polyfunctional human effector memory CD8(+) T cells’, Science Immunology, 5, 49, eaba7918.