Connecting closed world research information systems through the linked open data web

Research Information Systems (RIS) play a critical role in the sharing of scientific information and provide researchers, professionals and decision makers with the required data for their activities. Existing RIS standards have proposed data models to represent the main entities for storage and exchange. These account for the needs of multiple stakeholders through a high flexibility based on a formal syntax and declared semantics, but for techno-historical reasons they assume the completeness of information within system boundaries. The distributed nature of research information across systems calls for a mechanism to link the local entities from the closed world of concrete RISs with other possibly underspecified entities exposed through other means, as for example, the Linked Open Data Web. By transformation of a relational model into an open graph model, differences between the two system paradigms are revealed. The main principles and techniques for exposing CERIF-driven relational data as linked data will be provided as a first step demonstrating effective RISs interconnection through the linked open data (LOD) Web

HIVconsv vaccines and romidepsin in early-treated HIV-1-infected individuals: Safety, immunogenicity and effect on the viral reservoir (Study BCN02)

Kick&kill strategies combining drugs aiming to reactivate the viral reservoir with therapeutic vaccines to induce effective cytotoxic immune responses hold potential to achieve a functional cure for HIV-1 infection. Here, we report on an open-label, single-arm, phase I clinical trial, enrolling 15 early-treated HIV-1-infected individuals, testing the combination of the histone deacetylase inhibitor romidepsin as a latency-reversing agent and the MVA.HIVconsv vaccine. Romidepsin treatment resulted in increased histone acetylation, cell-associated HIV-1 RNA, and T-cell activation, which were associated with a marginally significant reduction of the viral reservoir. Vaccinations boosted robust and broad HIVconsv-specific T cells, which were strongly refocused toward conserved regions of the HIV-1 proteome. During a monitored ART interruption phase using plasma viral load over 2,000 copies/ml as a criterium for ART resumption, 23% of individuals showed sustained suppression of viremia up to 32 weeks without evidence for reseeding the viral reservoir. Results from this pilot study show that the combined kick&kill intervention was safe and suggest a role for this strategy in achieving an immune-driven durable viremic control