Great strides have been made in terms of public health campaigns to reduce the spread of HIV, and the development of antiretrovirals to stop people living with the condition from developing AIDS. However, medical interventions to cure or vaccinate against the condition have so far proved elusive. Researchers from the Montreal Clinical Research Institute may have made a crucial first step in this direction. Their recent research, outlined recently in the journal Cell Reports, focuses on boosting the levels of ‘plasmacytoid dendritic cells’ (PDCs) in the earliest stages of HIV infection.