Our Strategic Plan formulated based on review of our current
strengths, emerging opportunities and national HIV/AIDS research priorities focused the CFAR on supporting four Thematic Interdisciplinary Research Groups (TIRG) by strategic
expansion of Core services, pilot projects and targeted recruitments. These four TIRGs, Community-directed HIV Research, HIV and Women’s
Health, HIV and Mtb Coinfection and NeuroAIDS, were chosen because we have a
critical mass of senior and junior investigators engaged in basic translational
and clinical research in these particular areas which provided major
opportunities for synergism, interaction, new collaborations and growth. In addition, we also have organized a
Scientific Working Group (SWG) focused on the development of new NeuroMarkers of
compromised cognition due to HIV infection alone and combined with substance
abuse that brings CFAR invesigators together with investigators from the NICHD-funded
Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Center at Einstein.
- Community-directed HIV Research TIRG. This thematic interest research group consists
of CFAR investigators who are focused on determining how to optimize HIV
prevention, diagnosis and treatment in
communities that are challenged by socioeconomic difficulties and substance
abuse such as our Bronx community. In
the 30 years since the emergence of the AIDS epidemic, people of color, women,
substance users, people with mental health disorders, men who have sex with men
(MSM), and individuals of low socioeconomic status have borne a
disproportionate burden of this disease in the Bronx. Over 85% of the 23,000 people infected with
HIV who live in the Bronx are Black or Hispanic. Injection drug use and MSM contact are the
leading risk factors for HIV-infection in males and heterosexual sex and
injection drug use are the leading risk factors for HIV-infected females. on improving the capacity to prevent, diagnose
and treat HIV infection in these groups.
| September 27, 2012 |
Meeting With CFAR Community Advisory Board |
4:00-6:00PM
DGIM Conference Room |
- HIV and Women’s
Health TIRG. CFAR investigators in this thematic interest research group are focused on identifying factors unique to the pathogenesis, treatment and course of HIV infection in women that may be used for the rational design of strategies (oral and topical PrEP, vaccines, behavior, new forms of contraception) to prevent HIV and STI, and the identification of factors that uniquely impact on the clinical course of HIV infection in women.
| September 27, 2012 |
Dr. Kathryn Anastos |
8:30-10:00AM
Ullman 623 |
| October 25, 2012 |
Dr. Pablo Gonzalez |
8:30-10:00AM
Ullman 623 |
| November 5, 2012 |
Dr. Patrick Schlievert |
8:30-10:00AM
Belfer 601 |
| December 6, 2012 |
Dr. Robert Kaplan |
8:30-10:00AM
Ullman 623 |
- HIV and Mtb Coinfection TIRG. CFAR investigators in
this thematic interest research group are focused
on delineating the pathogenic interactions between HIV and TB that impact on
vaccine efficacy, diagnosis, treatment and disease course. HIV infection is the strongest risk
factor for developing tuberculosis and Mtb is the most common
opportunistic infection and the leading cause of mortality in HIV-infected
individuals. In countries with a high prevalence of HIV infection, the
incidence of tuberculosis is increasing annually by 7% and an estimated 12
million individuals worldwide are coinfected with HIV and Mtb. Synergistic
interactions between HIV and Mtb in co-infected individuals likely impact the
pathogenesis, disease course and treatment response of the diseases mediated by
each pathogen and accelerate the emergence of more lethal drug-resistant MDR
and XDR strains. This group, which interacts closely with the K-RITH program in
Durban, South Africa, is focused on a range of studies from the bench to the
bedside delineating the mechanisms underlying the pathogenic
interactions between HIV, TB and the immune system and on increasing our
capacity to diagnose and treat MDR and XDR Mtb infections in HIV/AIDS patients.
| November 13, 2012 |
Dr. Jacqueline Achkar |
9:00-10:30 AM
Price 557 |
- NeuroAIDS TIRG. CFAR investigators
in this thematic interest
research group are focused
on defining the mechanisms for the
development and progression of NeuroAIDS, a major complication of HIV infection
even in the HAART era to enable the rational design of new treatments.
NeuroAIDS is manifested by HIV-associated
neurocognitive disorders (HAND) which affect millions of HIV-infected
individuals whose symptoms range from mild
asymptomatic neurocognitive impairment to devastating dementia. Although HIV-1
is introduced into the brain early in the course of infection by transmigration
of HIV-1-infected cells from the systemic circulation across the blood-brain
barrier (BBB), symptomatic CNS disease does not develop in HIV-infected
individuals until many years later, usually in association with CD4+
T cell depletion. While the potent antiviral effects of HAART have dramatically
reduced the incidence of HIV-related neurological disease, many HAART-treated
patients still develop variants of HIV leukoencephalopathy characterized by
intense perivascular infiltration of HIV-infected macrophages, very high HIV levels
in the brain and extensive white matter destruction.
| October 4, 2012 |
Dr. Vinayaka R. Prasad |
4:00-5:00PM
Forchheimer 418 |
NeuroMarkers SWG. The goal of this
Scientific Working Group is to combine the expertise of CFAR investigators in the
mechanisms of HIV CNS pathogenesis and damage with the extensive experience of
RFK-IDDRC investigators in electrical and structural/functional brain imaging
and their deep knowledge of cognitive neuroscience to develop new NeuroMarkers to follow disease
course and evaluate the impact of therapeutic interventions. By partnering with
CFAR translational and basic scientists to address these mechanisms using
cellular, genetic, and molecular approaches, correlations with detailed electrophysiological analyses and imaging of
the brains of HIV-infected individuals can be made and the impact of substance
abuse can be delineated. These data can then also be used in conjunction with
neuropsychological testing to identify which correlates are most predictive of
cognitive decline. This is an exciting opportunity to conduct rigorous and
comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms that mediate HAND including the role
of substance abuse, and will enable identification of biomarkers that predict
this disease process and facilitate the monitoring of efficacy of therapies
designed to combat CNS decline.
| October 3, 2012 |
NeuroMarkers Workshop |
3:00-5:00PM
Belfer 601 |