Engi Attia, MPH, MD
Assistant Professor
University of Washington)

HIV/AIDS-related HLBS Research Webinar Series

“Chronic Lung Disease among Adolescents Living with HIV: Insights from Kenya and the U.S.”

Wednesday, April 10, 2019
11 a.m.- 12 p.m. Central Time

Engi Attia, MPH, MD is the current presenters for the NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) research webinar series. This program serves to highlight state of the art research from experts in the field and provide a platform for disseminating pertinent NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related research announcements. There will also be a short Q&A session to discuss upcoming NHLBI HIV/AIDS funding opportunities.

You may register for the webinar here.

Sumit Chanda, PhD
Director and Professor
Immunity and Pathogenesis
Program Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute

“Systems-level Analysis of HIV-Host Interactions”

Monday, April 8, 2019
Noon – 1 p.m. CT
Stonewall Conference Rooms
625 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611

Sumit Chanda earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2001, and received his post-doctoral training at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF). He subsequently transitioned to a Group Leader position, and established his research group in the Division of Cellular Genomics at GNF. In 2007, he joined the Infectious and Inflammatory Disease Center at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute as an Associate Professor. Dr. Chanda also holds an Adjunct Professor appointment at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, as well as a Visiting Scientist position at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation.

RSVP Here:

Una O’Doherty, MD, PhD
Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

“The HIV Reservoir Is Neither Stable nor Invisible”

Friday, April 5, 2019
Noon – 1 p.m. CT
Stonewall Conference Rooms
625 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611

Dr. Una O’Doherty is a Professor and an Apheresis Physician in the Division of Transfusion Medicine and Therapeutic Pathology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. O’Doherty studies how treatment resistant reservoirs of HIV are formed and maintained in HIV infected individuals. In the process of these studies, her group discovered that latent infection is favored when T cells in the quiescent state are infected without activation.  Over several years her group showed that directly infected T cells provide a model for the treatment resistant reservoir. This in vitro work led to discoveries which implied that reservoir persistence was not simply controlled by its visibility. Her current work focuses on selection pressures in vivo in a small cohort of individuals chronically infected with HIV and maintained on antiviral therapy.  By performing massive proviral sequencing on banked samples from this cohort over time, her group elucidated the presence of two opposing selective forces in vivo that appear to be driven in part by transcription.

RSVP Here:

Nanette Benbow, MAS, BSIS Core Co-Director, will join Alan Greenberg, MD, MPH (DC CFAR) and April Petit MD, MPH (Tennessee CFAR), in an inter-CFAR webinar detailing successful partnerships between CFAR investigators and public health departments.

The University of North Carolina Center for AIDS Research (UNC-CFAR) hosts the inter-CFAR webinar series.

You may register for the webinar here.

Date/Time: Wednesday, March 20, 2019; from 1:00pm – 2:00pm (CST)

Speaker: Michael Busch, MD, PhD (Professor at UCSF; Director of Vitalant Research Institute)

Title: Effects of Early ART and PrEP on HIV Diagnostics and Donor Screening

Registration Link: goo.gl/UHrqnh

Michael Busch, MD, PhD is the current presenter for the NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) research webinar series. This program serves to highlight state of the art research from experts in the field and provide a platform for disseminating pertinent NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related research announcements. There will also be a short Q&A session to discuss upcoming NHLBI HIV/AIDS funding opportunities.

In 1999, a man came into San Francisco City Clinic and was diagnosed with syphilis. He had had sex with many men but didn’t know their names, although they were all members of the same SF-based AOL chat room. The rest is history. From early interventions such as inSPOT, online partner notification, to modern mobile apps and social media, digital programs continue to show much promise in stemming the tide of the epidemic.

In this talk, Deb will cover early digital HIV prevention program development in concert with the SF community, evidence-based studies and literature reviews, and how-tos for more recent work on social media sites like Snapchat and Instagram.

Deb Levine, BSW, MA is the Founder and Former Executive Director of YTH (youth+tech+health) from 2001-2014. Currently, she is the Principal at her new consulting company, Tech Strategy Consultants. She has won many awards for her work in digital health for youth, including a White House – HHS award for a mobile app for college students, and a citation in former President Clinton’s report on Education and the Internet for her ground-breaking work on Columbia University’s Go Ask Alice. She has degrees from Cornell University and New York University, and is raising two teenagers in Oakland, CA.

This event is Co-sponsored with the The Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH).

Please RSVP Here. 

Institute for Public Health and Medicine Seminar Series:

“Bridging the Knowledge and Quality Gap: Using Implementation Research in Global Health to Accelerate Change (and how Rwanda succeeded in reducing child mortality)”

Lisa R. Hirschhorn, MD, MPH
Professor of Medical Social Sciences, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Join the Institute for Public Health and Medicine for engaging speakers on relevant research in public health. CME credit is available for most seminars. Lunch is provided on a first-come, first served basis.

Details are subject to change. The latest information can be found on the Seminar Series webpage: feinberg.northwestern.edu/sites/ipham/events

Dr. Jessica Ridgway and Professor Rayid Ghani will present the results of their projects funded by CFAR Pilot awards. These projects funded by CFAR will focus on the HIV-related predictive analytics and machine learning.

“Predictive Analytics for Retention in HIV Care” 

Jessica P. Ridgway, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health
The University of Chicago

Dr. Ridgway is the Director of Predictive Analytics for the Chicago Center for HIV Elimination at the University of Chicago and her research focuses on the use of informatics and predictive analytics to improve HIV treatment and prevention. She is particularly interested in how electronic medical record data can be harnessed to improve HIV prevention and care across the HIV care continuum.

“Combining Human Knowledge and Machine Learning to Increase Retention in Care for HIV Patients” 

Rayid Ghani
Research Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science 
Senior Fellow, Harris School of Public Policy 
Director, Center for Data Science and Public Policy 
The University of Chicago

Professor Rayid Ghani is the Director of the Center for Data Science and Public Policy, Research Director and Senior Fellow at the Computation Institute, and a Senior Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Ghani’s work has spanned from general machine learning and data science to privacy preserving data analysis, text analysis, semi-supervised learning, active learning, information retrieval, Natural Language Processing, and knowledge management. Most of Ghani’s work has focused on developing and using machine learning & data mining approaches to solve large-scale problems in corporate, political, and non-profit areas.

Grand Rounds Conference

8:00 am-9:00 am

Prentice, 3rd floor, Canning Auditorium

Presented by:  

Sharlay Kimberly Butler, MD

Fourth Year Resident

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Northwestern University

Francois Villinger, DVM
Professor,Department of Biology 
Director, New Iberia Research Center
University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Dr. François Villinger is a DVM from the University of Zurich, with over 30 years of research in infectious diseases, vaccines and immune responses using Nonhuman primate models of human diseases. Before taking the lead at the New Iberia Research Center in late 2015, he was a Professor of Pathology at the Emory School of Medicine and Associate Director for Pathology at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta. His main research focus has been on HIV models, and the development of tools and reagents specific for nonhuman primate investigations. Recently he has spearheaded a whole body to single cell analysis of immune mechanisms and viral dynamics in real time.

The 2019 Miami Winter Symposium,“Evolving Concepts In HIV & Emerging Viral Infections”, will be held on January 27 –30, 2019.  The deadline for abstract submission is October 19, 2018. More information can be found at  www.miamiwintersymposium.com

Stephanie Masiello Schuette, PhD
Director of Program Operations
HIV/STI Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Research
Chicago Department of Public Health

Dr. Schuette will present recent findings from the CDPH 2018 HIV / STI Surveillance Report and provide new insight into the HIV epidemic in Chicago.

Drs. Joshua Leonard and Chisu Song will present the results of their Third Coast CFAR pilot projects.

“Engineered extracellular vesicle-mediated delivery of targeted nucleases to inactivate HIV proviral DNA”

Joshua L. Leonard, PhD
Associate Professor
Chemical and Biological Engineering
Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering

Joshua L. Leonard, PhD is an Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Enginering at Northwestern University McCormick School of Engineering. His research group works at the interface of systems biology and synthetic biology in order to probe and program the function of complex, multicellular systems to develop transformative biotechnologies and enable a new paradigm of design-driven medicine. Using the tools of synthetic biology, biomolecular engineering, computational systems biology, and gene therapy, they develop technologies including programmable cell-based “devices,” immune therapies for cancer and chronic disease, smart vaccines, biosensors for global health applications, and tools for advanced metabolic engineering. By bringing an engineering approach to the investigation, design, and construction of biological systems, Dr. Leonard’s research group is advancing the frontiers of design-driven medicine to address unmet medical needs and create safe, effective, and long-lasting treatment options that improve both quantity and quality of life.

“Regulation of  APOBEC3 proteins: Implication for HIV and Cancer”

Chisu Song, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Medicine, Infectious Diseases
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Chisu Song, PhD is a research assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern University. Dr. Song received his doctorate at the University of Alabama in Virology in 2001. He completed his postdoctoral in microbiology and Hematology-Oncology at the University of Alabama, and Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University.

The Third Coast Center for AIDS Research will co-sponsor a seminar in Northwestern University’s Lectures in Life Sciences series

Wesley I. Sundquist, PhD

Distinguished Professor and Co-Chair 
Department of Biochemistry
University of Utah

Cellular, molecular and structural biology of HIV

Hughes Auditorium
Lurie Medical Research Center
303 E. Superior Street
Chicago Campus
Northwestern University

Wesley Sundquist, PhD is Samuels Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Utah. He is also a member of the Cell Response and Regulation Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Dr. Sundquist’s lab studies the cellular, molecular and structural biology of retroviruses, particularly HIV, and the roles of the ESCRT pathway in cell division and the abscission checkpoint. Major projects in our lab include studies of: 1) ESCRT pathway functions and regulation in cell division, 2) HIV budding, 3) HIV capsid structure, function and restriction, particularly by the TRIM5α system, and 4) Designed enveloped protein nanoparticles. Our approaches include NMR, EM, crystallographic and computational studies of viral complexes, identification and biochemical analyses of the interactions between viral components and their cellular partners, and genetic analyses of viral and cellular protein functions.

Putting Human Rights To Work for Global Health: Innovations in Human Rights Practices and Metrics
Friday, November 2, 2018
9 – 1 p.m.
Regenstein Library, Room 122
1100 E. 57th St, Chicago, IL

This half-day workshop reviews human rights-based interventions in a variety of settings and with a variety of vulnerable populations. Speaker will provide an overview of their experience with human rights-based approaches, with special attention to major programmatic successes or failures, and to innovations in program implementation and/or outcomes measures. Light breakfast and lunch will be served. Register at humanrights.uchicago.edu.  You may contact Ashley Pierce at human-rights@uchicago.edu.

Special Guest Speaker: Deborah L. Birx, MD
US AIDS/HIV Ambassador and
Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy

Renslow Sherer, MD
University of Chicago

David Munar, CEO
Howard Brown Health

Alice Kim, MA, MFA
Director of Human Rights Practice,
Pozen Family Center for Human Rights

Evan Lyon, MD
Medical Director, Heartland Health Outreach

Brian Citro, JD
Northwestern University School of Law

Symposium Overview

Join us for the Annual Third Coast CFAR Symposium Ending the HIV Epidemic: Think Globally, Act Locally. This multidisciplinary symposium will draw important connections between HIV research in global settings and the lessons researchers can apply to their domestic work. Examples of the “global to local” approach will include innovations in HIV testing, prevention and care, as well as implementation science approaches to scale up of new interventions, and the role of research on non-communicable diseases and HIV.

Symposium Information

The Annual Third Coast CFAR Symposium, Ending the HIV Epidemic: Think Globally, Act Locally, will take place at the Gordon Center for Integrative Science on Thursday, November 1, 2018.

Announcement for registration and call for abstracts to be released in August 2018.

Third Coast Center for AIDS Research
625 N Michigan Ave.
Suite 1400
Chicago, IL 60611

Gordon Center for Integrative Science
The University of Chicago
929 E. 57^th Street
Chicago, IL 60637

Lena Al-Harthi, PhD
Professor and Acting Chair
Department of Microbial Pathogens and Immunity
Rush Medical College

Lena Al-Harthi, PhD is a professor and acting chair in the Department of Microbial Pathogens and Immunity. She is also the program director of the Rush Initiative to Maximize Student Development, or Rush-IMSD, an NIH-funded training grant for underrepresented minority PhD students enrolled in the PhD in Integrated Biomedical Sciences program in the Graduate College. Her dissertation research was conducted as an NIH pre-intramural research training fellow at the laboratory of tumor cell biology, headed by Robert Gallo, MD, a co-discoverer of HIV and under the mentorship of Suresh Arya, PhD. Her research is focused on understanding mechanism(s) driving HIV neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and HIV latency in the central nervous system. Specifically, she studies the role of astrocytes in HAND and HIV latency. Al-Harthi has more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and reviews and has given many invited talks worldwide relating to HIV pathogenesis, especially in the central nervous system.

Judith S. Currier, MD, MSc
Professor of Medicine Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases
Co-Director Center for AIDS Research and Education Center (CARE)
Department of Medicine University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

Cardiovascular Disease in HIV: Mechanisms and Potential Interventions

Monday, October 22, 2018
Noon – 1 p.m.
Stonewall Conference Rooms
625 N Michigan Ave
Chicago, IL 60611

Dr. Currier is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research and Education Center (CARE) in the Department of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is Chair of the NIH sponsored AIDS Clinical Trials Group. Her research has focused on HIV therapeutics and long-term complications of HIV disease with an emphasis on sex differences and antiretroviral therapy, cardiovascular disease, and women’s health.

The 2019 Miami Winter Symposium,“Evolving Concepts In HIV & Emerging Viral Infections”, will be held on January 27 –30, 2019.  The deadline for abstract submission is October 19, 2018. More information can be found at  www.miamiwintersymposium.com

J.D. Smith, PhD and Nanette Benbow, MAS will identify the proportion and characteristics of HIV-related implementation research studies funded by NIH, discuss multiple implementation research methods used to study interventions targeting various points in the HIV prevention and care continuums, and present potential opportunities for next steps. If you would like consultation in implementation science methods or research, please contact the Third Coast CFAR’s Behavioral, Social, and Implementation Sciences (BSIS) core by emailing cfar@northwestern.edu.

J.D. Smith, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Preventative Medicine
Associate Director
Center for Prevention Implementation Methodology (Ce-PIM)
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

 Nanette Benbow, MAS
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences 
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Nanette Benbow, MAS is a research assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Director of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research End HIV Scientific Working Group; and member of the Center for Prevention Implementation Methodology. Her research interests include the use of epidemiologic and network modeling to improve HIV prevention and care continua; health equity for Latinos and sexual and gender minorities; and developing academic-public health partnerships in implementing evidence-based interventions that reduce HIV incidence in local settings. Before joining the Northwestern Faculty in 2016, Ms. Benbow was deputy commissioner of the STI/HIV Services Bureau of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) where she oversaw the development and implementation of prevention and care interventions.

George J. Greene, Ph.D., (he/him) is the associate director of the Evaluation, Data Integration, and Technical Assistance Program (EDIT) and faculty in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University. Dr. Greene’s research interests focus on health disparities in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adolescents and young adults, with a particular emphasis on ethnic/racial disparities in the HIV epidemic. His research aims to: (a) understand HIV risk and protective factors from intersectionality and developmental-ecological perspectives; (b) employ community-based participatory research approaches to build upon the needs and strengths of communities to identify and develop effective interventions; (c) design technology- and Internet-based approaches for observation and intervention; (d) adopt theoretically-driven program evaluation approaches to appropriately evaluate HIV prevention research and service efforts; and (e) apply qualitative and mixed methods approaches to research and program evaluation efforts

Midwest LGBTQ Health Symposium

The 2018 Midwest LGBTQ Health Symposium (MLHS) will explore this year’s theme “Moving Towards Health Equity. Strengthening our Community of Care.” The two-day gathering of healthcare professionals, social service providers, advocates, and researchers will highlight innovative best practices in LGBTQ patient-centered clinical care as well as community-driven approaches to addressing health disparities. Join us as we explore these critical topics and others – HIV elimination, racial equity in LGBTQ care, addressing violence and reproductive justice, as providers and advocates striving for meaningful change. Third Coast Center for AIDS Research is a2018 sponsor of the event.

The Collaborating Consortium of Cohorts Producing NIDA Opportunities (C3PNO) will host the IAS pre-conference on Sunday, July 22 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM CET (UTC+1:00).
C3PNO, the data coordinating center for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) longitudinal HIV cohorts, will demo the new C3PNO virtual repository which links laboratory, clinical, and biological data (i.e., blood and guts) with substance use and behavioral outcomes (i.e., glory).

Date: Sunday, July 22, 2018 – Lunch provided for registrants
Time: 12:00-2:00 PM (CET, UTC+1:00)
Room: E103

Agenda:
• Introductory comments from Redonna Chandler, PhD – NIDA AIDS Research Program Director
• C3PNO Overview
• Cutting-edge C3PNO cohort science
• Case study: combining cohort data to understand the opioid epidemic in sentinel populations
• Using the virtual repository
• Data linking initiatives including depression among cohort participants
• Pilot projects
• New collaborations

RSVPs: https://goo.gl/forms/5sJbGfQpVNYFYLLC3

About C3PNO: Our mission is to stimulate research and encourage new collaborations studying substance use in the context of HIV pathogenesis. C3PNO fosters cutting-edge science powered by the cohorts’ combined sample size of over 12,000 participants. These cohorts span North America and some, like ALIVE and VIDUS, reach back over 25 years. The cohorts include injecting drug users, men who have sex with men, and clinically-based populations. Participating cohorts include ACCESS, ALIVE, HYM, Johns Hopkins HIV Clinical Cohort, the John Hopkins Heart Study, MASH, mSTUDY, RADAR, and VIDUS.

C3PNO is led by co-Principal Investigators Pamina Gorbach, DrPH, MHS (University of California Los Angles) and Suzanne Siminski, MS, MBA (Frontier Science).

Learn more about C3PNO by going to www.c3pno.org or contacting aeragsdale@mednet.ucla.edu.

*Accepting Applications through Tuesday, June 12, 2018*

The Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) in coordination with a number of National Institutes of Health (NIH) Institutes and Centers and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), are hosting this training institute to provide participants with a thorough grounding in conducting D&I research in health across all areas of health and health care. In 2018, the institute will utilize a combination of a 4-month online course (six modules with related assignments) between August 13 and November 30 , 2018, and a 2-day in-person training to be held December 6-7, 2018, in Bethesda, MD. Faculty and guest lecturers will consist of leading experts in theory, implementation, and evaluation approaches to D&I; creating partnerships and multilevel, transdisciplinary research teams; research design, methods, and analyses appropriate for D&I; and conducting research at different and multiple levels of intervention (e.g., clinical, community, policy).

Participants will be expected to return to their home institutions prepared to share what they have learned at the institute to help further the field of D&I research (e.g., giving talks, leading seminars, forming new collaborations, mentoring, submitting D&I grant proposals, etc.).

For more information, and to apply, visit the TIDIRH Website.

Drs. Hossein Ardehali and Matthew J. Feinstein will present the results of their Third Coast CFAR pilot projects.

“HIV and Diastolic Dysfunction”

Hossein Ardehali, MD, PhD
Director
Feinberg Cardiovascular and Renal Research Institute –
Center for Molecular Cardiology
Professor
Medicine (Cardiology) and Pharmacology
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Hossein Ardehali, professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and of Pharmacology, leads a lab committed to investigating the role of mitochondria and cellular metabolism in cardiovascular disease. As director of the Center for Molecular Cardiology at the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute (FCVRI), he also supports overall research efforts in molecular cardiology throughout the medical school.

“Causes and Characteristics of Cardiac Dysfunction and Heart Failure in HIV”

Matthew J. Feinstein, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Medicine and Preventive Medicine Division of Cardiology
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Matthew Feinstein is a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine and an assistant professor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine with a dual appointment in the Department of Medicine and Department of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Feinstein is a physician-scientist with expertise in the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular diseases as well as cardiovascular complications of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and chronic inflammatory diseases.

Xu Yu, MD

Associate Professor 
Harvard Medical School

Xu Yu, MD is the current presenter for the NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) research webinar series. This program serves to highlight state of the art research from experts in the field and provide a platform for disseminating pertinent NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related research announcements. There will also be a short Q&A session to discuss upcoming NHLBI HIV/AIDS funding opportunities.

You may register for the webinar here.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Héctor Carrillo, DrPH
Professor of Sociology and Gender & Sexuality Studies;
Co-Director, The Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN),
Northwestern University

Professor Carrillo will speak about his newbook , Pathways of Desire: The Sexual Migration of Mexican Gay Men. He argues that in order to fully understand the sexual health and HIV prevention challenges that sexual migrants confront, it is necessary to pay close attention to the effects of the shifts in social and cultural context that they experience as a result of their transnational relocation.

PRESENTER
Jesus Hernandez-Burgos, MPH, DrPHc
Vida/SIDA Program
The Puerto Rican Cultural Center

Free and open to the public
Light reception; Seminary Co-op will sell books on-site;
Professor Carrillo will be available to sign books.
2 CEUs (free with registration)
To register and link to Livestream, visit:
ssa.uchicago.edu/ssa-events
Livestream begins at 5:30 pm (CST).

Jessica Ridgway, MD, MS
Assistant Professor, Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health
University of Chicago Medicine

Ridgway’s primary research focus is the impact of technology on healthcare epidemiology, particularly the use of informatics in infection control and prevention. She develops and studies syndromic surveillance algorithms using electronic health records. She also has a particular interest in the epidemiology of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and multidrug-resistant Gram-negative organism.

Chad J Achenbach, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Preventive Medicine
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University

Dr. Chad Achenbach is an Assistant Professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Center for Global Health. Dr. Achenbach is a specialist in Infectious Diseases with clinical interests in the treatment of HIV infection and co-infections. He is currently participating in several research projects and training programs through the Center for Global Health, including PEPFAR Nigeria, NU AITRP and the Eramune study.

Join the fight to eradicate mother to child HIV transmission.

Experience the city like you never have before – walking across 18 historic bridges on the Chicago River.

Your support helps raise the critical funds needed to deliver healthy newborns.

As an added bonus, for every $50 donation you or your sponsor makes you will be eligible to win a pair of (2) HAMILTON tickets! For example, if you sponsor a walker with $50, both YOU and YOUR SPONSEE will be entered in the lottery to win! If you donates $100, you and your sponsee will each be entered TWICE! Each $50 increment of donation means an increased chance of winning!

Please email bcondron@nm.org following donating to be entered into the lottery.

If you would like to walk with our HIV clinic team – we are meeting on SUNDAY MAY 13th at 9 a.m. in the pavilion near the Tribune Tower/Apple Store to walk the river, starting at Michigan Avenue and ending at Van Buren.

There are two simple guidelines:

1. Walk the 18 bridges
   The path of the BridgeWalk 2018 extends over 18 bridges on the Chicago River, from Lake Shore Drive to Van Buren. This is a very modest distance of approximately 4 miles if you walk strictly from bridge to bridge using the available riverwalk and nearby sidewalks between each bridge. You can start at either end of the designated path for the walk, at Lake Shore Drive or VanBuren. It’s your choice exactly when and how you want to complete the walk. Feel like doing it on a Sunday morning at 9 a.m.? That’s absolutely fine. Maybe you want to fit it in over a lunch break during the week? That’s ok too! It’s totally up to you.
2. Raise funds for HOPE
   By signing up for the HOPE BridgeWalk 2018, you are committing to support HOPE at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The fundraising target for every walker is $2000. If you are signing up as part of a team, please see the REGISTER page for team goals. Every dollar you raise goes directly to HOPE to help eradicate HIV in newborn babies at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Rahm Gummuluru PhD
Associate Professor,
Department of Microbiology,
Boston University School of Medicine

Research in my laboratory is broadly focused on the mechanisms of cell-­to-­cell  and  cell-­associated  HIV-­1 transmission with an emphasis on interactions of HIV with myeloid cells (monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells) and the implications of these interactions on systemic dissemination of HIV. I obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY where I studied mechanisms responsible for the rapid immunopathology and disease progression observed in SIVsmmPBj14-­infected  pig-­tailed  macaques.  As a post-­ doctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, I focused on HIV-­1 pathogenesis, with an emphasis on host interactions of the HIV-­1 accessory protein, Vpr and the mechanism by which Vpr enhances  HIV-­1  replication.  I  am now an Associate  Professor in the Department of Microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), and Co-­Director of the Developmental Core for the Lifespan/BU/BMC CFAR. My research has been focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms that govern interactions of HIV with myeloid cells. My laboratory has considerable expertise in molecular virology, identifying mechanisms of   HIV-­induced immunopathology and cell biology of HIV   infection. We were the first to identify the glycosphingolipid,   GM3, present in the virus particle membrane and the myeloid cell-­specific siglec, CD169/Siglec-­1, as the ligand-­receptor interaction necessary for capture of HIV-­1 particles by DCs,  and transfer of the captured virus particles to the myeloid cell-­mediated trans infection pathway across virological synapses. The discovery of the GM3 – CD169 mechanism of virus particle recognition by my laboratory has paved the way for our recent  efforts to develop nanoparticle-based myeloid  cell-­specific therapeutics for targeted delivery of  anti-­retrovirals to secondary lymphoid tissues.  In parallel,  we are focused on identifying mechanisms that drive persistent induction of innate immune activation in HIV-­infected myeloid cells, with the ultimate goal of developing immunotherapeutic approaches to diminish HIV-­induced chronic immune activation, the main driver of HANA conditions in cART-­suppressed individuals.

John Buolamwini, PhD
Chair of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
College of Pharmacy, School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

Host: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics

My laboratory in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, is involved in small molecule drug/probe design and discovery research. The talk will highlight the use of computer-aided drug design, chemical synthesis and biological studies in this endeavor. Disease targets of interest to be discussed are EGFR, MDM2 and STAT3 for cancer, HIV integrase for HIV/AIDS, and nucleoside transporters for ischemia-reperfusion injury and protection against drug-induced mitochondrial toxicity. Through an interdisciplinary approach, several compounds have been discovered, yielding potential therapeutic leads and/or pharmacological tools for difficult to treat cancers such as pancreatic cancer, triple negative breast cancer and melanoma, as well as ischemic heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and mitochondrial rescue.

Paul Wender, PhD
Bergstrom Professor of Chemistry
Stanford University

Abstract:

Our research seeks to create therapeutic function through synthesis-informed design, often inspired by natural products and directed at unsolved medical problems. This lecture will focus on the as yet unachieved goal of eradicating HIV/AIDS, first-in-kind strategies for treating Alzheimer’s disease and the use of our own cells to make agents that elicit an immune response to overcome cancer. These function-oriented synthesis studies (Accts. 2015) will be initially exemplified with the organocatalytic synthesis of a new and remarkably effective mRNA delivery system, CARTS, directed at therapeutic vaccinations, cancer immunotherapy, and gene editing. Our studies on HIV/AIDS eradication will follow. AIDS is one of the most catastrophic pandemics to confront mankind with ~37 million individuals living with AIDS and ~35 million who have thus far died of the disease (UNAIDS 2016). While antiretroviral therapy (ART) slows disease progression, it is chronic, requires strict compliance, is costly, and is implicated in health problems attributed to long-term chemo-exposure. HIV eradication would address these problems. ART is not curative. It reduces the active virus load, but the active virus is resupplied by reservoir cells incorporating genomically encoded, replication competent provirus that persist in infected individuals. Efforts to eradicate HIV seek to eliminate these reservoir cells, the cause of recurrent infection. Prostratin and bryostatin, promising clinical candidates for reservoir clearance, activate reservoir cells through a protein kinase C (PKC) pathway, allowing for their elimination through cytopathic effects or immunotoxin clearance. We have developed supply-impacting syntheses of prostratin and bryostatin[3]. We have also used these routes to make superior analogs. This lecture will provide an overview of our efforts directed at this global medical problem, including synthesis studies, computer[6] and REDOR solid state NMR studies[7] on the structure of PKC and PKC modulatory ligands, the design and synthesis of new PKC modulators, their latency activating activities (Nature Chem. 2012; PNAS 2013) and the connection of this research to a novel strategy to treat neurological disorders, with the lead candidate now in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

April 25, 2018 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion, Abbott Auditorium, 2200 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208

Emerging Issues and Research Best Practices

Wednesday, April 25, 2018
8:30 AM to 3:00 PM (Breakfast & Lunch will be served)

UIC College of Nursing
845 S. Damen Ave, 3rd Floor Event Space
Chicago, IL 60612

This free workshop is designed to provide an overview of African American men’s health, as well as discuss emerging issues, and research best practices with regards to recruitment and retention, measurement, and community engagement in this populations. Students, post-doctoral researchers and scholars in Chicago conducting research specifically on African American and Black men are encouraged to attend.

Registration Required: http://j.mp/2IhMzGS

Questions? Please contact Raymond Ruiz at rar2175@uic.edu

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through Grant UL1TR002003. The content is solely the responsibility of the presenters and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Patrick Janulis, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine
Quantitative Methodologist, Third Coast Center for AIDS Research
Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing
Northwestern University 

Patrick Janulis, Ph.D., (he/him) is an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences and also serves as the quantitative methodologist for the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research. He received his doctorate in Ecological-Community Psychology from Michigan State University where he conducted research on the impact of substance use on HIV and hepatitis C virus risk behavior. More generally, his research examines the intersection of HIV, drug use, and LGBTQ health. His early work focused on using latent variable modeling to improve the measurement of HIV risk behavior and understanding within-person variation in risk behavior across different environments and social circumstances. More recently this work has shifted to leveraging modern data science approaches to measure, understand, and intervene on the root causes in the spread of HIV. Currently, he works on RADAR, a longitudinal cohort study of young men who have sex with men (YMSM) which includes longitudinal network data collection in effort to better understand how social, sexual, and drug use networks effect the health of YMSM. In addition, he serves as a Co-Investigator on the Network Canvas project which aims to develop a novel software suite for capturing social network and other complex data in effort to better understand the spread of HIV.

Christopher Longenecker, MD 

Assistant Professor 
School of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University

Christopher Longenecker, MD is the current presenter for the NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) research webinar series. This program serves to highlight state of the art research from experts in the field and provide a platform for disseminating pertinent NHLBI HIV/AIDS-related research announcements. There will also be a short Q&A session to discuss upcoming NHLBI HIV/AIDS funding opportunities.

You may register for the webinar here.

Jenny Trinitapoli, PhD
Director, Center for International Social Science Research (CISSR)
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology University of Chicago

The AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa is now nearly 40 years old. After a long battle, the standard metrics have started to point to good news: new infections are down, prevalence has stabilized, life-saving anti-retrovirals are becoming widely available, and AIDS-related mortality has declined. Using panel data from Tsogolo la Thanzi study collected in Balaka, Malawi between 2009 and 2015, I argue that in the wake of pandemic AIDS, an epidemic of uncertainty persists. AIDS-related uncertainty, I argue, is measurable, pervasive, and impervious to biomedical solutions. In Malawi, the consequences of uncertainty are salient to multiple domains of life including relationship stability, fertility, health, and well-being. Even as HIV is transformed from a progressive, fatal infection to a chronic and manageable condition, the accompanying epidemic of uncertainty remains central to understanding the demographic future of this part of the world.

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Dr. Trinitapoli’s training and background is in two areas: social demography & the sociology of religion. Bridging these two fields, her work features the demographer’s characteristic concern with data and denominators and an insistence on connecting demographic processes to questions of meaning. She asks questions about data quality.

She has written extensively on the role of religion in the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, but religion permeates her research, even when it isn’t present as a variable. Since 2008 she have been the principal investigator of Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT)—an ongoing longitudinal study of young adults in Malawi. Demographers use terms like “relationship instability” and “fertility trajectories,” but very plainly: TLT asks how young adults negotiate relationships, sex, and childbearing with a severe AIDS epidemic swirling around them. The TLT research centre, located in Balaka (Southern Malawi), is staffed by over two dozen talented locals and supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Robert Garofalo, MD
Division Head, The Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV Prevention
Ann Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago

“Supporting LGBTQ Youth: Providing Affirmative and In-clusive Health Care Across the Spectrum of Gender and Sexual Identity “

Objectives:

• Discuss challenges to providing health care to LGBTQ youth
• Discuss how best to provide both culturally relevant and competent care
• Discuss ways that both providers and health care systems can better provide access and care to LGBTQ youth.

CFAR pilot awardee, Dr. Carlos Gallo is an ISGMH affiliate faculty member conducting research that aims to facilitate the implementation evidence-based programs (EBPs) by local agencies, particularly those involved in reducing health inequities in the LGBT and ethnic minority’s populations. He is interested in developing computational methods that monitor and provide real-time feedback of implementation indicators useful for health care providers and funding agencies. He has successfully applied his knowledge in system engineering and computational linguistics in parent-training preventive interventions such as Familias Unidas and New Beginning Programs, funded by NIDA. His work has enhanced the delivery of programs that improves outcomes of Hispanic youth on risky sexual behavior, HIV, and drug abuse. He developed the first machine-based methods that recognize linguistic patterns that are evidence of therapeutic alliance between therapist and family during Familias Unidas home visit sessions. These linguistic patterns are linked to fidelity of implementation and are evidence high fidelity to EBPs protocol. He also developed signal engineering methods to automatically recognize emotion in spoken speech during a EBP delivery in recorded audio/video tapes. Important aspects of the EBPs delivery require providers to speak in specific manners that is either neutral or matches the clients emotions. His work sets the stage for efficient methods of measuring implementation and monitoring and feedback systems that closes the gap between research and practice, during the translation of EBPs in real world use.

Abstract:

Adolescent men who have sex with men (AMSM) experience a disproportionate burden of new HIV diagnoses among all young people. Fortunately, carefully designed mHealth interventions exist to reach and engage this key population. Mobile health (mHealth) is a general strategy to use mobile phones and other wireless mental health interventions. However, these interventions often send scripted messages while ignoring the linguistic style of participants or the linguistic context in which the scripted messages are received. Linguistic style and context affect people’s interpersonal satisfaction and engagement, as demonstrated in sociology, couple’s counseling, and psycholinguistics. For instance, married couples with similar linguistic styles report higher marital satisfaction and are less likely to separate. HIV research has largely ignored how mHealth participants’ linguistic style affects engagement and satisfaction to the intervention.

This lecture will describe computational linguistic methods that analyze the linguistic style of AMSM in order to optimize peer-to-peer platforms of HIV prevention programs. Also, these methods can inform ways to tailor scripted messages to the linguistic context of the peer-to-peer conversation in an efficient, scalable, non-obtrusive, and automatic manner. In summary, this lecture will demonstrate examples where computational linguistic methods could improve the implementation of future generation mHealth HIV interventions.

ISGMH is cosponsoring this event with the Northwestern Department of Linguistics.

RSVP here.

Northwestern University location change:
View in Lakeshore Conference Room 27th Floor 625 N Michigan Chicago, IL 60611

Celeste Watkins-Hayes received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University in June 2003. She also holds an M.A. in Sociology from Harvard and a B.A. from Spelman College, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1996. Celeste is a Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University and former Chair of the Department of African American Studies. In addition to her faculty appointments, Watkins-Hayes is a Faculty Fellow at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research and Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health.

Watkins-Hayes has published numerous articles in the areas of sociology, African American Studies, and public policy studies.  Her book, The New Welfare Bureaucrats: Entanglements of Race, Class, and Policy Reform (University of Chicago Press, 2009) is an examination of how welfare officers navigate the increasingly tangled political and emotional terrain of their jobs. The book was a finalist for the 2009 C. Wright Mills Book Award from the Society for the Study of Social Problems and the 2011 Max Weber Book Award from the American Sociological Association.

Dr. Watkins-Hayes is also principal investigator of The Health, Hardship and Renewal Study, which explores the economic and social survival strategies of women living with HIV/AIDS in the Chicago area. Results from that study will be presented in the book, Remaking a Life, Reversing an Epidemic: HIV/AIDS and the Politics of Transformation (under contract at the University of California Press). In 2009, she received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Investigator Award and a National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award to conduct this research.

Watkins-Hayes has published numerous articles in journals and edited volumes including, The Annual Review of Sociology, Social Problems, and The DuBois Review. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Spelman College and the Advisory Board of the Spelman College Women’s Research and Resource Center and has been profiled in Essence, USA Today Weekend, Chicago Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times.

2018 ODP Early-Stage Investigator Lecture Winner

	Jacob Bor, Sc.D., S.M. Assistant Professor and Peter T. Paul Career Development Professor, Boston University
	Lecture Title The Promise and Pitfalls of HIV Treatment-as-Prevention: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from South Africa

About Dr. Bor

Jacob Bor, Sc.D., S.M., is an Assistant Professor and Peter T. Paul Career Development Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health. His research applies the analytical tools of economics and data science to the study of population health, with a focus on HIV treatment and prevention in southern Africa. Current research interests include chronic disease management in low-resource settings; economic spillover effects of HIV treatment; decision-making in HIV-endemic risk environments; population health impacts of social policy; and causal inference in public health research. His work has been published in Science, The Lancet, PLOS Medicine, Epidemiology, and Health Affairs.

Prior to his graduate training at Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Bor worked with an HIV-prevention NGO in Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa. He is a faculty affiliate of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center and junior faculty fellow at its Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering. He is a Senior Researcher at the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office and a visiting researcher at the Africa Health Research Institute, both in South Africa.

About the ODP Early-Stage Investigator Lecture

The ODP Early-Stage Investigator Lecture recognizes early-career prevention scientists who have not yet competed successfully for a substantial NIH-supported research project, but who have already made substantial, outstanding research contributions to their respective fields and are poised to become future leaders in prevention research.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and attendees can join either in person or via NIH VideoCast. In-person attendance is strongly encouraged.

For more information, please contact the Office of Disease Prevention at prevention@mail.nih.gov.

ISGMH is co-sponsoring this event with the CONNECT Program and with Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health. Lunch will be served. This talk will be available to livestream via BlueJeans. 

This talk will focus on existing research assessing neighborhood-level determinants of health outcomes and behaviors among LGBT populations, including gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (MSM). This talk will also discuss the limitations of current approaches to studying the influence of neighborhoods on health, focusing on methods and approaches used to define neighborhoods and measure their characteristics. It will explore emerging methods aimed at addressing these limitations, including the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in neighborhoods and health research.

Dustin T. Duncan, ScD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, where he directs the NYU Spatial Epidemiology Lab. As a social and spatial epidemiologist, he studies how specific neighborhood characteristics influence population health, with a particular focus on HIV epidemiology and prevention and emerging work on sleep epidemiology and promotion. Dr. Duncan’s work focuses on health disparities among minority populations, with an emphasis on sexual minorities. This includes gay, bisexuals, and other men who have sex with men (MSM). His work includes applying emerging geospatial technologies such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices and smart phones to, in part, examine spatial mobility and social networks in neighborhoods. Dr. Duncan completed his doctorate and the Alonzo Smythe Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowship, both in social epidemiology, at the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health. RSVP here.

Dr. Mehta’s current work focuses on identifying bio-behavioral risks and pathways for STIs and HIV. Additionally, her work in antimicrobial resistant N. gonorrhoeaehas provided support to national STI treatment guidelines in Kenya. Her teaching interests include core epidemiologic concepts and the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections.

Dr. Mehta is the principal investigator of an NIH-funded 5-year study of the effect of the penile microbiome on women’s risk Bacterial vaginosis, genital ulcer disease, and genital epithelial trauma. This study, Afya jozi, Afya jamii, will eventually enroll 204 heterosexual couples in Kisumu, Kenya, and follow them for one year. Over four times points, the male and female genital microbiomes and local immune markers of inflammation will be measured to understand how the penile microbiome contributes to STIs. Behavioral assessments used in Kenya have been adapted for a U.S. population and are currently being assessed in Chicago and the Dominican Republic, for cross-national comparison.

Agenda

Livestream

National Academies of Science Health and Medicine Division will host a one and a half day public workshop on the infectious disease consequences of the opioid epidemic will be held. Participants will discuss the scope of the problem, giving particular attention to viral hepatitis, HIV, and endocarditis. Attention will be given to reducing the infectious disease co-morbidities of injection drug use, especially strategies that emphasize empathy, respectful treatment, and patient satisfaction.

Speakers at the workshop will present on how the opioid epidemic has changed the epidemiology of infectious disease. In panel and open discussion, participants will discuss strategies to prevent and treat infections in people who inject drugs, especially ways to work efficiently though the existing public health and medical systems. Effective novel strategies will also be discussed. Attention will be paid to strategies that seem realistic, making efficient use of existing resources, as well as those that could not be implemented without additional funds.

Presenter:
Yen-Tyng Chen (Postdoctoral Scholar)
Chicago Center of HIV Elimination, University of Chicago

Location:
Friday March 9th from 10:30a – noon
CDPH Boardroom, Level 2 of the DePaul Center
1 E Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604

Abstract

Objective: Young black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) are the only group where HIV incidence has increased in the United States. Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is an effective prevention intervention to prevent HIV acquisition when taken regularly. The higher rates of infection among YBMSM are due to others with HIV combined with structural barriers that limit HIV prevention and care. This study aimed to examine the relationship of place and network characteristics with PrEP awareness among YBMSM.

Methods: We used data collected from a sample of 618 YBMSM in the South Side of Chicago (2013- 2014). Participants reported information on network members including where they live. Administrative data were used to describe the places where participants and their network members resided. Multilevel models were used to assess the relationships of place-level and network characteristics with PrEP awareness.

Results: Higher place-level college degree, owner occupied residence, violent crime rate, and greater access to MSM serving venues were associated with greater PrEP awareness; greater place-level access to alcohol outlets and higher percentage of continuity residence were associated with less PrEP awareness. Sexual network members residing in the same community area as the participants were associated with greater PrEP awareness. The effect of place-level access to MSM serving venues on PrEP awareness was marginally modified by percentage of main sexual partners.

Conclusions: The results suggest that place and network characteristics are influential for disseminating PrEP messages. Additional studies are needed to understand the influences of structural environments and network characteristics on dissemination of PrEP information, uptake, and adherence.

AIDSVu.org will launch the first-ever publicly available data and interactive maps of PrEP users by state from 2012 through 2016, overall and stratified by sex and age.

There is a Launch Toolkit for you to access and share social media content, infographics, a video, and other launch materials to help get the word out about AIDSVu’s new maps and resources.  There is also an AIDSVu public webinar, which will take place on Thursday, Mar. 8 at 1:00 pm ET.

Public Briefing Information:

• Date and Time: Thursday, Mar. 8, 1:00 PM ET
• Webinar link: join.startmeeting.com/Gilead
• Dial-in: (701) 801-1211
• Attendee access code: 506-325-060

Updated the data methods section with the following clarifications:

Data on PrEP users displayed on AIDSVu were obtained from Source Healthcare Analytics, LLC (SHA) with the support of Gilead Sciences, Inc., and compiled by researchers at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. SHA provided Gilead with national, electronic, patient-level prescription data from an overall sample that represents over 54,000 pharmacies, 1,500 hospitals, 800 outpatient facilities, and 80,000 physician practices. This is an open sample of commercially available data, which excludes entities that do not make their data available, such as closed health care systems. All patient-level prescription data were de-identified and linked to confirmatory data from a de-identified medical insurance claims database. Gilead then utilized a validated algorithm to exclude prescriptions for TDF/FTC that were made for other known indications, such as HIV treatment, post-exposure prophylaxis, and chronic hepatitis B management. Through a data sharing agreement between SHA, Gilead, and Emory University, Gilead shared aggregate datasets at the state- and ZIP3-level with Emory. Emory then applied data suppression rules and developed the publicly available maps and data sets for AIDSVu. Please see the Data Methods page for additional information. 

Pilot awards are intended for key preliminary studies in HIV-related basic, clinical, or behavioral research that will enable new NIH grant submissions and to stimulate cross-institutional and/or cross-disciplinary collaborations. A proposal must be for a new project or idea that is distinct from any currently funded project. Teams that include faculty from Northwestern University and The University of Chicago, and across disciplines, are encouraged.

Eligibility

• Principal Investigator (PI) must be a Third Coast CFAR faculty member
• PI on the application must be a new investigator (never PI on an R01-equivalent NIH grant) or new to HIV/AIDS (never PI on R01-equivalent NIH grant for HIV/AIDS)
• Awards can be to an individual investigator, a mentor-mentee pair, or an inter-disciplinary team

Awards

• One-year award with possibility of renewal
• Up to $50,000 per year
• Bi-annual submission cycle

Application Process

• RFA and application instructions are posted here
• Abbreviated NIH-style application is submitted online
  
• Required letter of intent survey due January 10, 2018
• Full application due February 28, 2018.

Brett B. Williams, MD
Rush University Medical Center

Dr. Willams’ primary research interest has been identifying risk factors for persistent immune activation in chronic HIV infection and the mechanisms by which intestinal microbiota contribute to this immune activation. Dr. Willam is an active clinical investigator in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), with a research interest in the role of the intestinal microbiome in immune activation and HIV disease pathogenesis. He is a member of the microbiome focus group and protocol development co-chair of A5352, which is tasked with evaluating the effects of probiotic on microbial translocation, the mucosal immune response and the intestinal microbiome. Dr. Willams’ also an investigator for A5346 which is a randomized controlled trial of sitagliptin to reduce immune activation in chronic HIV infection. He is the primary investigator of a privately funded study at Rush University Medical Center the goal of which is to describe the changes in the gut microbiome and metabolome which occur in HIV patients following initiation of antiretroviral therapy and relationships between these changes and serologic markers of immune activation.

The First HIV MUCOSAL SYSTEMS MEETING is to be held April 29 – May 2, 2018, in Santa Rosa, California.

The goal of this meeting is to provide a much-needed platform for international interchange on important topics relating to HIV interactions with mucosal systems. Sessions include: an overview session describing HIV relevant mucosal, mucosal innate and adaptive immunology, mucosal epithelial barriers, microbiome, mucous properties, mucosal transmission, interventions, technological advancements in mucosal research, and relevant epidemiology and clinical science aspects in HIV.

We are seeking abstracts for presentations, due February 23^rd by 8 p.m. EST by submitting to mucsysinfo@northwestern.edu. Please limit your abstract body to 300 words, and designate if you are an early career investigator eligible for a scholarship (defined here as in a training position such as graduate student, postdoctoral fellow, or within 3 years of Assistant Professor designation). Scholarships will be awarded based on abstract quality (no other documents will be necessary for submission). Notifications of abstract disposition and scholarship awards will come on or before March 12^th, 2018 via email. Please forward to anyone who may be interested.

Registration will be open soon. As a reminder, the meeting registration will be only $300 and the rooms at the meeting site (Flamingo Hotel, Santa Rosa, CA) are a very reasonable $139/night.

We highly encourage young investigators to attend, this will be an excellent opportunity for learning, discussion, and networking.

Jennifer Brier, PhD
Director, Gender & Women’s Studies Program, University of Illinois-Chicago

As we approach the fifth decade of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, we continue to have a pressing need for a useable and meaningful history of how people— across identity categories of sexuality, gender and race—struggled and fought to make minoritized communities healthy in the face of profound abandonment and opprobrium. In this talk, historian Jennifer Brier will detail a series of powerful examples of resistance to this silencing in hopes of sparking a conversation about how to imagine a future without AIDS.

Jennifer Brier directs the Program in Gender and Women’s Studies at UIC, where she is also an Associate Professor of GWS and History. She specializes in US history of sexuality and gender and public history. Brier is the author of Infectious Ideas: U.S. Political Response to the AIDS Crisis, published by the University of North Carolina Press. Brier is at work on a major public history project called History Moves, a community-curated mobile gallery that will provide a space for Chicago-based community organizers and activists to share their histories with a wide audience. The current project is “I’m Still Surviving” a multimedia presentation of the women’s history of HIV/AIDS.

Co-sponsored by the Chabraja Center for Historical Studies and the Sexualities Project at Northwestern (SPAN).  Lunch will be served. This lecture will also be available to be streamed remotely using BlueJeans. This lecture will be hosted on the Evanston campus in room 1-515 of Kresge Hall.

Steven Bosinger, PhD
Yerkes Researcher

Steve received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario in Microbiology & Immunology and had focused on studying the pathogenic events in early HIV and SIV infection.  He did his post-doc at the University of Pennsylvania with Dr. Guido Silvestri where he began his work studying how African monkey species avoid AIDS despite lifelong SIV infection, and his post-doctoral work he was awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship, and one of 5 Young Investigator Awards from the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise. In 2010 he moved to Emory University and the Yerkes Primate Center as a Research Faculty.  In 2012 he founded a Core laboratory specializing in applying genomic technology to the study of primates and the study immune system. In 2016, he was appointed to the Department of Pathology & Lab Medicine.

Dr. Bosinger’s contributions to AIDS research have demonstrated the role of interferon in AIDS pathogenesis and how it can be manipulated to reduce harmful inflammation and enable cure, and the development of genomic tools for the study of the immune system. Today he’s going to talk to about some exciting new data in the monkey model that sheds light on the immunopathogenesis of AIDS.

CRS Translational Lecture in Reproductive Science

“Utilizing cell biological approaches to study HIV”

Thursday, February 8th, 2018
Baldwin Auditorium, 4:00pm – 5:00pm
Robert H. Lurie Medical Research Center

Thomas Hope, PhD
Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology, McCormick School of Engineering, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

The CRS sponsors the Translational Lectures in Reproductive Science (LRS) seminar series.  This seminar series takes place monthly and includes lectures by luminaries in the field of reproductive science and medicine. These seminars are often co-sponsored by various departments and programs across the university and are open to the broader Northwestern community and interested members of the public.

Learn more about Translational Lectures in Reproductive Science