In the last two years several groups have reported the discovery of new and promising Abs [17, 18, 19] . The HJ16, HGN194 and HK20 Abs obtained by our consortium were amongst those obtained by means of the interrogation of rather chronically HIV-1 infected patients. In the present study, the HGN194 patient was infected for at least 10 years and seemed to naturally control her HIV-1 infection, the HK20 patient may not have been infected for longer than a year and the HJ16 patient regularly required antiretroviral therapy to control her viral load. These data confirm that neutralizing Ab development does not protect against disease progression. Similarly, some of the broadest neutralizing plasma were obtained from patients who urgently required HAART (e.g. HY-plasma table 2, clinical history not shown).