CIRM has funded two HIV/AIDS Disease Teams led by scientists at UCLA and the City of Hope who are focused on stem cell transplant strategies that promise a long lasting resistance to HIV. Antiretroviral therapy provides life-saving medicine to HIV-infected people but it is not a cure. Long-term exposure to the drugs and the virus itself shorten a person’s life, even if they don’t develop AIDS. Both disease teams have a goal of getting to clinical trials within four years. For more info, go to: www.cirm.ca.gov/HIV/AIDS_facts