Christian Brander

Christian Brander

Institut de Recerca de la Sida - IrsiCaixa

Life & Medical Sciences

Christian Brander obtained a PhD in Immunology at the University of Bern and completed his post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School, focusing on T cell immunity to HIV. He led several international efforts to build HIV research capacities across Southern Africa and Central and South America. He joined ICREA in 2008 with an appointment at the IRSICaixa AIDS Research Institute and as the scientific director of the Catalan HIV vaccine program HIVACAT. He is a co-inventor of the "HTI" immunogen, which has shown first promising results in clinical trials of therapeutic HIV vaccination. 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 in different disease contexts. Using complementary tools for immune analysis and integrated -omics approaches, we seek to identify functional correlates of virus control and to explore their underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. We combine immune assays with methylome, communicome and transcriptomics analyses to assess to what degree and at which stages of different viral infections the effector function profiles of virus-specific T cells are epigenetically controlled. We are especially interested in understanding these mechanisms in lympho-proliverative and neurological diseases driven by these viral infections.

Selected publications

- Borgognone A, Noguera-Julian M, Oriol B, Noel-Romas L, Ruiz-Riol M, Guillen Y, Parera M, Casadella M, Duran, C, Puertas MC, Catala-Moll F, De Leon M, Knodel S, Birse K, Manzardo C, Miro JM, Clotet B, Martinez-Picado J, Molto J, Mothe B, Burgener A, Brander C & Paredes R 2022, 'Gut microbiome signatures linked to HIV-1 reservoir size and viremia control', Microbiome, 10, 1, 59.

- Romero-Martin L, Tarres-Freixas F, Pedreno-Lopez N, de la Concepcion ML, Rodriguez, Cunyat F, Hartigan-O'Connor D, Carrillo J, Mothe B, Blanco J, Ruiz-Riol M, Brander, C & Olvera A 2022, 'T-Follicular-Like CD8(+) T Cell Responses in Chronic HIV Infection Are Associated With Virus Control and Antibody Isotype Switching to IgG', Frontiers In Immunology, 13, 928039.

- Rosas-Umbert M, Gunst JD, Pahus MH, Olesen R, Schleimann M, Denton PW, Ramos V, Ward A, Kinloch NN, Copertino DC, Escriba T, Llano A, Brumme ZL, Jones RB, Mothe B, Brander C, Fox J, Nussenzweig MC, Fidler S, Caskey M, Tolstrup M & Sogaard OS 2022, 'Administration of broadly neutralizing anti-HIV-1 antibodies at ART initiation maintains long-term CD8(+) T cell immunity', Nature Communications, 13, 1, 6473.

- Bailon L, Llano A, Cedeno S, Escriba T, Rosas-Umbert M, Parera M, Casadella M, Lopez M, Oriol-Tordera B, Ruiz-Riol M, Coll J, McGowan I, Sengupta D, Wee EG, Paredes R, Alarcon-Soto Y, Clotet, B, Noguera-Julian M, Brander C, Molto J, Mothe B & Rivero A 2022, 'Safety, immunogenicity and effect on viral rebound of HTI vaccines in early treated HIV-1 infection: a randomized, placebo-controlled phase 1 trial', Nature Medicine, 28(12):2611-2621.

- Romero-Martín L, Duran-Castells C, Olivella M, Rosás-Umbert M, Ruiz-Riol M, Sanchez J, Hartigan-O Connor D, Mothe B, Olvera À, Brander C 2022, 'Disruption of the HLA-E/NKG2X axis is associated with uncontrolled HIV infectionsFront Immunol. 13:1027855.