THE BERLIN PATIENT
A sensation in the scientific community: The first person to ever be cured of AIDS. Get an insight into three promising research approaches across the globe.
For years, researchers believed that a cure for AIDS was impossible. But all that changed four years ago when an American, Timothy Ray Brown, became the first patient in the world to be cured of HIV at the Berlin Charité hospital. In fact he was cured of both HIV and leukaemia, by using stem cell treatment. Since then, it appears that victory over the frequently fatal infection is possible. This documentary tells the story of the sensational treatment and takes the viewer on a journey through the various laboratories across the globe. Using complex animations, we present the three, currently most promising research approaches. Paula Cannon at the University of Southern California has already succeeded in curing HIV-infected mice using genetic scissors. In Germany, scientists are working on an enzyme that works like a molecular scissors. Immunologist, Dennis Burton is going another way. He believes that the means to counteract HIV is already present in the human body and that we must simply find it, in order to immunise people.