PROJECT SUMMARY This program is an extension of our successful HIV basic science training program with the HIV Cure Research Infrastructure Studies (H-CRIS) based at the University of Ghana - an ongoing collaboration between Washington University in St. Louis (WU) and the University of Ghana (UG). Finding a permanent cure for people living with HIV, a key priority for the NIH, requires rigorous and inclusive basic science research. The main obstacle to an HIV cure is the persistence of transcriptionally silent and immunologically unrecognizable proviruses in quiescent memory CD4+ T cell reservoirs in people who are on ART. Although over 70% of HIV patients live in Africa, very little of the basic science of cure research involves African patients or scientists. This is a clear deficiency in the cure research efforts that needs immediate remedy. Most HIV basic science research on cure has been conducted in the USA and Europe in Caucasian men and on one viral subtype (HIV subtype B). However, HIV in Africa predominantly affects women, who are thus excluded from cure research. In addition, African women living with HIV have co-infections like tuberculosis, hepatitis, and human papillomavirus, which can all determine CD4+ T cell responses. Since 2018, a partnership between WU and UG has set up the HIV Cure Research Infrastructure Studies (H- CRIS) at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, UG. H-CRIS is training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in HIV basic science and cure research with outstanding success; many trainees have obtained independent grant funding. The parent grant to this supplement will enroll 3 PhDs (4-year program), 4 MPhil (2-year master's with a laboratory research thesis), and provide a two-year intensive basic laboratory research training and mentorship for four postdoctoral fellows (11 trainees in all). This supplement will train an additional postdoctoral fellow and a master's student whose basic research into HIV will specifically focus on questions relevant to women living with HIV in Ghana. Our specific aims are: 1. To build capacity and experience at the University of Ghana for basic science researchers to design and conduct HIV cure-related research in Ghana. 2. To equip trainees with research skills through 2-year intensive and mentored postdoctoral research projects focused on HIV basic science and cure. 3. To establish and maintain a mentorship plan for trainees at UG who aspire to become independently funded investigators in the basic science of HIV research.