# Human Immune System Mouse Core

> **NIH NIH P30** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $256,295

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT 
Human Immune System Mouse Core (Core H) 
The Human Immune System Mouse Core (HISMC) will provide HU CFAR investigators with humanized mouse 
models in which to study human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In addition, the HISMC will support 
early career HU CFAR investigators to access these models through a Voucher program. 
Despite extensive correlative studies of HIV-infected persons and ex vivo studies of peripheral blood cells and 
tissue biopsies, fundamental questions about HIV pathogenesis and immunity remain unanswered. The ability 
to study HIV through controlled perturbations of the immune system is limited in human subjects, and limited 
access to human tissue samples makes the investigation of HIV replication and human immune responses to 
HIV difficult in compartments other than the blood. Investigators have therefore turned to animal models, but 
unfortunately an ideal animal model of HIV infection has remained elusive. Although simian immunodeficiency 
virus (SIV) infection of rhesus macaques has provided many critically important insights into retroviral 
pathogenesis and immunity, there are differences inherent in macaque immune responses to SIV and human 
responses to HIV. Moreover, expenses associated with NHP studies limit access to this model. To address 
these limitations, chimeric “humanized mice” with human immune cells have been generated. The HU CFAR 
HISMC generates complementary humanized mouse models: human peripheral blood leukocytes (hu-PBL) 
mice, hematopoietic stem cells (hu-HSC) mice and bone marrow-liver-thymus (BLT) mice. Studies supported 
by the HISMC have demonstrated that these mice recapitulate multiple aspects of HIV infection in humans 
such as the presence of an “eclipse phase” of infection following intravaginal challenge; similar depletion of 
CD4+ T cell in peripheral blood and mucosal tissues following infection; and support advanced in vivo imaging 
of HIV infection by multiphoton-intravital microscopy and bioluminescence imaging. They also offer a model to 
study the effect of treatment, such as ART or antibodies, against HIV. 
In the coming funding period, the HISMC will provide access to these models of humanized mice as a new 
MGH/Partners Healthcare Core. As such, all costs involved in the generation of the mice and their 
experimental manipulations are included in the price of the services. The CFAR support will be entirely 
directed towards a voucher program to support access of early career HU CFAR investigators to these 
services. These vouchers will cover costs related to humanized mice experiments and will be restricted to early 
career HU CFAR investigators who have no grant funding for humanized mouse studies from other sources.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9960408
- **Project number:** 5P30AI060354-17
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Alejandro Benjamin Balazs
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $256,295
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2004-07-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9960408

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9960408, Human Immune System Mouse Core (5P30AI060354-17). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9960408. Licensed CC0.

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