Lawrence Today magazine, Summer 2009
LEADING THE WAY IN HIV-1 RESEARCH
BY MARTI GILLESPIE
Credit the gifts of a child’s microscope and chemistry set with instilling in Ashley Haase ’61 a lifelong interest in scientific research. Experiments Haase conducted in the basement of his parents’ Arlington Heights, Ill., home helped fuel a passion that today has him on the verge of making medical history.
Haase, a Regents’ Professor and head of the department of microbiology at the University of Minnesota, is one of the researchers who has discovered a way to prevent female monkeys from contracting simian AIDS — a revelation that could eventually lead to a breakthrough in preventing human HIV infection.
The findings, Haase said, came after more than a decade of work in the lab. “We now have drugs that control HIV-1, but it’s clear that preventive measures are needed to stem the growth and eventually stop the pandemic. So we decided to focus our research on understanding HIV-1 transmission and to conduct research with the objectives of enabling the design and testing of vaccines and microbicides that would prevent HIV transmission to women.”
THE RESEARCH
The study combined glycerol monolaurate (GML), a germ killer used as a food additive and in cosmetics, with a personal lubricant already approved for use by women. One of Haase’s colleagues at the U of M had previously discovered that GML blocked the toxins that cause toxic shock syndrome in a way that suggested that it had the potential to prevent transmission of the virus that causes simian AIDS by decreasing the availability of the target cell “fuel” on which the virus depends to establish infection. They created a GML gel and applied it to five female monkeys before repeatedly exposing them to as many as four very high doses of the virus. In four of the five cases, the virus was stopped in its tracks. Haase called the findings “satisfying,” but he says there is much more work to do, including the continuation of the current study and the design of tests of GML in women.
A DEVOTED SCHOLAR
A self-described workaholic, Haase admitted that the laboratory has always been his second home. A chemistry major at Lawrence, he cited his close relationship with chemistry professor Bob Rosenbergas laying the groundwork for his transformation into a world-renowned scientific researcher. “What skills I have in thinking about and solving problems, and understanding research results, I attribute to the habits of conceptualizing and working through problems and data I learned from him,” Haase said. It was with Rosenberg’s guidance that Haase embarked on an honors thesis project that required two years of demanding laboratory research.
Despite his dedication to the sciences, Haase was quick to point out that his time at the college also included being a member of the football and wrestling teams and doing some “humorous stunts” with his roommate and now lifelong friend, Art Ullian ’61. It was also at Lawrence where Haase met his wife, Ann Delong Haase ’61. The couple enjoys visiting their three children who live in New York City, Sonoma County and Costa Rica.
DEDICATED TO DISCOVERY
After graduation from Lawrence, an interest in medicine brought Haase to the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. After Columbia, his clinical training took him to Johns Hopkins. It was about this time that the Vietnam War continued to escalate. The National Institutes of Health created the NIH Associate Training Program to bring the best and the brightest scientific minds together to learn about research administration and to conduct various research projects. Scientists and physicians selected to participate in the NIH Associate Training Program were allowed to serve their country in the laboratory, versus on the combat fields of Vietnam, earning the program the nickname Yellow Berets. Haase was chosen for the program, an opportunity that would define his career from that point forward.
While at the NIH, Haase began studying viral infections. “I had heard about and been fascinated by the discovery of an obscure disease from New Guinea that presented with symptoms years after exposure to the infectious agent. I decided that I wanted to devote my career to studying slow infections, and prepared myself to do the research by continuing my training in virology at the NIH and the National Institute of Medical Research in London.”
After finishing his training, Haase continued his work at the University of California, San Francisco, where he conducted research on the visna virus, a slow infection in sheep. While there he was also instrumental in getting visna and other similar viruses included in a new category called lentiviruses (from Latin, for slow, Haase said).
Fast forward to the mid 1980s, where Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier (this year’s recipients of a Nobel Prize) discover the virus, HIV-1, that causes AIDS. Haase is now at the University of Minnesota, where he and others showed that HIV-1 is a lentivirus. Back on familiar territory, Haase said, “I decided that we should turn our attention to this new lentivirus in humans to see if we could contribute something to stemming the growing tide of this dreadful, invariably fatal disease.” He and his colleagues then spent the next 25 years in pursuit of this passion, the last 10 of which included, most recently, research with the GML gel.
One might think that the roller-coaster ride Haase encountered over the past quarter-century in the lab would make it difficult to keep pushing for answers. Not so, he says. It just comes with the territory. “A slow virologist of necessity has a long-term horizon perspective, so the inevitable set-backs and slow progress, while frustrating, are expected. Now we have the satisfaction of knowing we have found something that had the potential in the future to contribute to preventing transmission (of HIV-1).”
As news of the GML gel and its potential for fighting AIDS spread throughout the scientific community, Haase found himself thrust into a global spotlight, answering questions from colleagues and news organizations. But for this dedicated researcher, the real excitement wasn’t in sharing the here and now of the team’s discovery. It was the potential the discovery was leading them toward. Though certainly a substantial scientific achievement, the time to celebrate was short. Haase was soon back in the lab, pursuing the quest to find ways to block HIV-1 transmission. There was much more work to be done.
