Julia Arnsten, MD, MPH, Director of the CFAR Clinical and
Translational Investigation Core, Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, and Professor of
Medicine, Epidemiology & Population Health and Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences received a $3.3 million RO1 grant (R01 DA032552) for the study
entitled “Neurocognitive effects of opiate agonist
treatment in HIV infected drug users.” This study will test the hypothesis that treatment with
buprenorphine is associated with significant improvement in neurocognitive
function in opioid-dependent drug users with- and without HIV, compared to
methadone and whether HIV-infection moderates the impact of opioid agonist
therapies on NC function.
Aaron D. Fox, MD, Assistant
Professor of Medicine received a $912,000 K23
grant (K23DA034541) for a mentored research project entitled “Buprenorphine
facilitated access and supportive treatment in former inmates.” This study
will examine the effectiveness of a tailored intervention to target former
inmates and to use peer mentors to
increase initiation of buprenorphine treatment, an effective treatment for
opioid addiction, and reduce HIV risk behaviors, overdose-related deaths, and
re-incarceration.
Harris Goldstein, MD, Director of the Einstein-Montefiore
CFAR and Professor
of Pediatrics and Microbiology & Immunology received a $2.8
million RO1 grant (R01DA033788) for the study entitled “Systems biology
analysis of in vivo impact of substance abuse on HIV infection.” This study
will study the mechanism by which substance abuse increases HIV transmission
and accelerates disease course by delineating the early stages of HIV infection
using a novel humanized mouse model and systems biology analysis.
William Jacobs, PhD, Associate Director of the
Einstein-Montefiore CFAR, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology and
Genetics and Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute received
a $5.8 million RO1 grant (R01AI098925) for the study entitled “Vaccines for
extensively drug resistant tuberculosis.” This study will produce and test the
capacity of a vaccine derived from IKE-deleted M. smegmatis expressing genes
encoding immunodominant TB antigens to induce bacteriocidal immunity that is
protective of infection by MDR (Multi Drug Resistant)-TB and XDR (Extensively
drug Resistant)-TB which disproportionally infect and kill HIV-infected
individuals.
Alain Litwin, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical
Medicine and Clinical Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences received
a $3.7 million RO1 grant (R01DA034086) for the study entitled “Intensive
models of HCV care for injection drug users.” This study will examine the effectiveness
of directly observed therapy (DOT) with antiviral agents targeting HCV to
improve adherence and maximize the number of HCV-infected injection drug users
(including up to 90% of HIV-infected injection drug users) that are able to be
cured from HCV infection.
Max R. O'Donnell, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine
and Epidemiology & Population Health received a $669,000 K23 grant (K23AI098479)
for a mentored research project entitled “Biomarker for XDR-TB treatment
response and drug resistance in HIV endemic area.” This study will examine
the effectiveness of a TB biomarker to rapidly predict treatment
response and diagnose new drug-resistance and thereby improve treatment
outcomes that include improved survival, decreased patient infectivity and
reduced community spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis strains, particularly
in HIV endemic settings.
Deborah Palliser, PhD, Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology & Immunology received a $2.1 million RO1 grant (R01AI099567)
for the study entitled “Enhancing RNAi delivery in vivo.” This
study will investigate the efficacy of using RNAi as a potential
microbicide to prevent infection with HSV-2, a major co-factor for HIV-1, which
infects ~ 20% of adults in the US and up to 90% in parts of sub-Saharan Africa
and thereby slow HIV-1 transmission.
John Pachankis, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychology received a $690,000 R34 grant (R34MH096607)
for the study entitled, “Intervention development for social stress, mental
health, and HIV risk among MSM.” This study aims to develop and test a
theoretically-driven intervention that reduces the health-depleting effects of
minority stress associated with MSM through targeting the basic psychosocial
mechanisms linking minority stress to increased HIV risk behavior.
Liise-Anne Pirofski, MD, Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases and
Professor of Medicine and Microbiology & Immunology received a $2.7
million RO1 grant (R01AI097096) for the study entitled “B cell subsets and
immunity to cryptococcosis.” The goal of this study is to determine whether
the loss of IgM memory B cells, a subset of B cells which are depleted in HIV
infection, can be used to identify patients with HIV/AIDS who will get cryptococcosis
and to determine the mechanistic basic for this
association.