Associate Professor David Harrich made the antiviral protein, known as the "Nullbasic", by mutating an existing HIV protein.
Once HIV-infected cells were treated with the protein, they stopped making virus particles.
Associate Professor Harrich, head of the HIV molecular virology laboratory at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, said the results exceeded his expectations."The protein didn't just inhibit the virus' ability to produce virus particles and spread to other cells, it shut it down completely," he said.
