Sushama Telwatte

• Dr. Sushama Telwatte

  Locarnini Fellow in Virology

  Sushama.telwatte@unimelb.edu.au
  

Research Overview

Dr. Telwatte’s group investigates the mechanisms by which HIV persists in the body despite suppressive antiretroviral therapy (ART), with the ultimate goal of informing curative strategies. This work centers on understanding viral persistence, survival of infected cells in both blood and tissue reservoirs, and how low-level HIV transcription and protein production sustain immune activation. By mapping transcriptional and translational activity in latently infected cells, our work seeks to define actionable biomarkers and targets for interventions that either silence or eliminate HIV.

A major theme of our work involves the development and optimization of advanced molecular and cellular tools to link viral RNA expression with protein production and immune recognition. We aim to apply these technologies to interrogate samples from both model systems and people living with HIV, exploring how specific signaling pathways and cellular states promote or protect against viral reactivation.

Our group also examines the role of host cell pathways, including pro-survival signaling, in maintaining infected cell reservoirs. Through pharmacologic and genetic perturbation, we aim to uncover new strategies to sensitize infected cells to immune clearance or cell death.
This multi-pronged, translational research program is designed to bridge basic science with therapeutic development to advance the field toward a functional HIV cure.

Staff

• Ms. Carolyn Tumpach (Research Assistant)
• Ms. Jesslyn Ong (Research Assistant)
• Mr. Rohan Goyal (Student)
• Mr. Jiwen Chen (INSpire Program Student in 2025)

Collaborators

I maintain broad and diverse collaborations, and the below highlights several of my frequent collaborators:

• Doherty Institute: Lewin Group, VIDRL (Pasricha)
• Burnet Institute: Hearps Group
• University of California, San Francisco: Yukl Group
• Gladstone Institutes: Roan Group
• San Francisco General Hospital: Lee Group

Funding

Philanthropic Funding (John C Martin Foundation), Internal UoM funding, GenScript

Research Publications

1: Cevaal PM, Kan S, Fisher BM, Moso MA, Tan A, Liu H, Ali A, Tanaka K, Shepherd RA, Kim Y, Ong J, Furtado DL, Holz M, Purcell DFJ, Casan JML, Payne T, Zhao W, Fareh M, McMahon JH, Deeks SG, Hoh R, TELWATTE S, Pouton CW, Johnston APR, Caruso F, Symons J, Lewin SR, Roche M. Efficient mRNA delivery to resting T cells to reverse HIV latency. Nat Commun. 2025 May 29;16(1):4979. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60001-2. PMID: 40442114; PMCID: PMC12122926.  

2: Frouard J*, TELWATTE S*, Luo X, Elphick N, Thomas R, Arneson D, Roychoudhury P, Butte AJ, Wong JK, Hoh R, Deeks SG, Lee SA, Roan NR, Yukl S. HIV-SEQ REVEALS GLOBAL HOST GENE EXPRESSION DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIV-TRANSCRIBING CELLS FROM VIREMIC AND SUPPRESSED PEOPLE WITH HIV. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Dec 20:2024.12.17.629023. doi: 10.1101/2024.12.17.629023. PMID: 39763963; PMCID: PMC11702770.
*Co-first

3: Tumpach C, Rhodes A, Kim Y, Ong J, Liu H, Chibo D, Druce J, Williamson D, Hoh R, Deeks SG, Yukl SA, Roche M, Lewin SR, TELWATTE S. Adaptation of Droplet Digital PCR-Based HIV Transcription Profiling to Digital PCR and Association of HIV Transcription and Total or Intact HIV DNA. Viruses. 2023 Jul 22;15(7):1606. doi: 10.3390/v15071606. PMID: 37515292; PMCID: PMC10384802.

4: TELWATTE S, Lee S, Somsouk M, Hatano H, Baker C, Kaiser P, Kim P, Chen TH, Milush J, Hunt PW, Deeks SG, Wong JK, Yukl SA. Gut and blood differ in constitutive blocks to HIV transcription, suggesting tissue-specific differences in the mechanisms that govern HIV latency. PLoS Pathog. 2018 Nov 15;14(11):e1007357. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1007357. PMID: 30440043; PMCID: PMC6237391.  

5: Yukl SA, Kaiser P, Kim P, TELWATTE S, Joshi SK, Vu M, Lampiris H, Wong JK. HIV latency in isolated patient CD4⁺ T cells may be due to blocks in HIV transcriptional elongation, completion, and splicing. Sci Transl Med. 2018 Feb 28;10(430):eaap9927. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aap9927. PMID: 29491188; PMCID: PMC5959841.

6: Tumpach C, Cochrane CR, Kim Y, Ong J, Rhodes A, Angelovich TA, Churchill MJ, Lewin SR, TELWATTE S*, Roche M*. Adaptation of the intact proviral DNA assay to a nanowell-based digital PCR platform. J Virus Erad. 2023 Jun 28;9(2):100335. doi: 10.1016/j.jve.2023.100335. PMID: 37440871; PMCID: PMC10334350.
*Co-senior

7: TELWATTE S, Morón-López S, Aran D, Kim P, Hsieh C, Joshi S, Montano M, Greene WC, Butte AJ, Wong JK, Yukl SA. Heterogeneity in HIV and cellular transcription profiles in cell line models of latent and productive infection: implications for HIV latency. Retrovirology. 2019 Nov 11;16(1):32. doi: 10.1186/s12977-019-0494-x. PMID: 31711503; PMCID: PMC6849327.