Congrats, Dr. Munot!

We’re proud to congratulate our colleague Daksha on the successful defense of her PhD thesis! Her project explored the fascinating interplay between HIV-1 infection, human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs), and cellular senescence—a key process in aging and inflammation.

HERVs are viral sequences that settled in our genome millions of years ago. While usually silent, some of their long terminal repeats (LTRs) can wake up and influence nearby human genes. Daksha focused on one such LTR (called LTR12D) that is activated by HIV and drives expression of a gene called DHRS2. The respective protein stabilizes the tumor suppressor p53, leading to increased expression of p21—a protein that halts cell division and pushes cells into a senescent state.

Daksha’s work confirmed this mechanism across several HIV target cells, including CD4⁺ T cells and macrophages. She further showed that other stress signals—such as oxidative or ER stress—can also activate this pathway. With this, Daksha has shed new light on how HIV might contribute to aging-related symptoms by hijacking viral DNA embedded in our genome. Congratulations, Daksha!

(Image kindly provided by Yueshuang Lu)