The Dexeus Women's Health Fundation has awarded a Grant for Basic Research in Obstetrics and Gynaecology to Dr. Meritxell Genescà, principal investigator of the Infectious Diseases Research Group of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) to develop the project 'Characterization of latent HIV reservoirs of the cervical tissue and new strategies to eliminate them'. In this way, the main objective of the project led by Dr. Genescà is "to characterize the cell populations of the lower female genital tract tissue that represent a viral reservoir in patients infected with the HIV virus in order to identify strategies for activation of these cells and eliminate them," he explains.This tissue is the gateway to most HIV infections in women and, therefore, the virus initially only replicates in the genital mucosa. "Considering that viral reservoirs are established very early during the infection, it is necessary, on the one hand, to determine the contribution of this tissue to the remaining reservoir during the antiretroviral treatment, and on the other, to design new strategies to eliminate cells latently infected in these patients," adds Dr. Genescà. The scholarship consists of a diploma and a cash prize of euros3,000 and the project must be delivered within a period of two years.The delivery of the 5 grants corresponding to the 12th call for grants for clinical research projects of theDexeus Women's Health Foundation was carried out during the academic event that took place on Thursday 22nd February at the Auditorium of the Dexeus University Hospital. The other four grants were for research projects of general gynaecology, foetal maternal medicine, oncological gynaecology and reproductive medicine.