In 2020, the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was the first scientific conference to move from in-person to virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On the fifth anniversary of the virtual conference, and the pandemic, some of those earliest COVID-19 patients have still not recovered.

Aim Vaccine Co. Ltd. may become the first company to gain regulatory clearance of a prophylactic iterative serum-free human rabies vaccine. Beijing-based Aim said it is preparing a regulatory submission of its independently developed rabies vaccine based on positive phase III results that showed good safety, immunogenicity and immune persistence.

At the 2025 meeting of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. On the first full day of the conference, reports from the first HIV cure trial conducted in Africa, the RIO trial and others showed that perhaps, a broadly useful cure is on the horizon.

Three public health experts have voiced concerns that the uncertainties sparked by the Trump administration’s moves to reduce federal spending could limit the U.S. CDC’s ability to track and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and will undermine the public health support system in the U.S.

A new multi-omics approach to unpicking how noncoding gene variants influence the development of common chronic diseases has identified tens of thousands of instances where variants have an impact on gene expression levels and gene splicing, the post-transcriptional modification that allows one gene to code for multiple proteins.

Investigators at Pennsylvania State University have described a novel approach to combat Clostridioides difficile infection using a synthetic microbiome therapy, which offers an alternative to antibiotics and fecal microbiota transplant (FMT). C. diff, the main cause of antibiotic-related diarrhea, is responsible for an estimated half a million infections annually in the U.S.

Persica Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has delivered positive 12-month follow-up data from its phase Ib study of PP-353, an injectable antibiotic for treating chronic lower back pain, and is now looking for a partner and further financing to take the product into phase III development.

As U.S. regulatory uncertainty swirls around the vaccine space and health care in general, Vaxcyte Inc. stands poised for a readout of phase II infant data by the end of this quarter with VAX-24, the 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). The San Carlos, Calif.-based firm will offer top-line safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity data, to be followed by top-line data with the booster dose by the end of this year.