CROI 2013: Basic science review.

The 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections was held in Atlanta, Georgia, and featured strong coverage in several basic science categories. Presentations on viral reservoir and cure research covered a variety of topics, including approaches to gauge viral reservoir size in patients on suppressive antiretroviral therapy, approaches to reactivate latently infected cells, and the role of residual replication in viral persistence under antiretroviral therapy. Research on viral restriction factors remains a strong feature of the conference, and presentations on the impact of viral restrictions on the establishment of viral reservoirs, as well as strategies that harness the antiviral potential of cellular restrictions, generated a lot of interest. Several studies on the nature of proviral latency left us with the sobering message that elimination of the latent viral pool is going to be an even greater challenge than previously suspected.