EGAS00001000522-sc-20160608 - samples

Background: A rare subgroup of HIV infected individuals naturally controls infection without
treatment. These ?elite controllers? constitute an important model for the natural control of
HIV infection. Indeed, the study of these individuals may provide insights into strategies for
the development of HIV vaccines. Although several HLA and chemokine alleles are known
to be over-represented in elite controllers, only a small portion of HIV phenotypic variation is
explained by known genetic variants. The elite controller phenotype is rare and distinct,
representing the extreme of an infectious disease trait. As such, this phenotype may be partly
explained by variation in host immune control, which may be characterized by differences in
rare functional genetic variants. Genomic regions underlying elite control can be potentially
identified by comparing the presence or frequency of variants in this group to that
representing the opposite extreme. In this context, ?rapid progressors? is a group defined by
its rapid immunological and clinical disease progression.
Aim: To extend an existing study, in order to identify DNA sequence variants involved in the
control of HIV infection with greater statistical resolution. Specifically, we aim to sequence up
to 200 exomes from multiple cohort studies within the EuroCoord CASCADE collaboration (a
collaboration of 25 HIV seroconversion cohort studies across Europe).EGA dataset EGAD00001002179