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.