Natural infection as a blueprint for rational HIV vaccine design

So far, the development of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) vaccine has been unsuccessful. However, recent progress in the field of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) has reinvigorated the search for an HIV vaccine. bNAbs develop in a minority of HIV infected individuals and passive transfer of these bNAbs to non-human primates provides protection from HIV infection. Studies in a number of HIV infected individuals on bNAb maturation alongside viral evolution and escape have shed light on the features important for bNAb elicitation. Here we review the observations from these studies, and how they influence the rational design of HIV vaccines.