September 19-26, 2017

What does Aaron Siegler have in common with Chicago Cubs player Wilson Contreres? Simple ... they both hit the very first pitch they faced out of the park during their very first Major League at bat.

In Aaron's case, that first ML at-bat led to R01 funding (1R01MH114692-01) for a randomized, controlled trial of an intervention intended to promote persistence in PrEP adherence by replacing quarterly medical monitoring visits with a DIY home care system. If successful, Aaron's intervention has the potential for helping to eliminate up to 1.5 million PrEP medical office visits per year while increasing participation among those who would most benefit from PrEP.

'Do Over' Alert...

Kudos to Kelsie Brooks for scoring her first NIH funding (1F31AI122926-02) ... in 2016.

Major Apologies for the oversight!

Kelsie is examining the impact that a person's "founder virus" (i.e. the specific HIV particle that was successful in setting up shop and establishing infection) has on that person's viral reservoir. If successful, Kelsie's project will provide information that may help to inform more successful HIV therapeutic strategies.

... to Jim Nettles (9/7), Lilin Lai (9/8), Teresa Parker (9/9), Frank McDonald (9/10), Eileen Burd (9/11), Safiya Dalmida (9/13), Dick Compans (9/15), Jim Curran (9/16), Selwyn Hurwitz (9/18), Kirk Easley (9/20), Rana Chakraborty (9/22), Kate Winskell (9/23), Erin Joi Collins (9/24), and Mike Kutner (9/24)

Best of all possible birthday wishes from all of us to all of you!

And speaking of birthdays .... Please join us in welcoming our newest CFARian, Donald Oneal Beamer III, son of Natalie Crawford. Donald joined the CFAR on September 14th at 9:13am. He weighs 7lbs, 8oz and is already the apple of big sister Blake's eye.

Even though Baby Beamer (see above) was born into a family free of HIV there is a world full of current and future babies who are not as lucky.

Fortunately for all of us Ann Chahroudi has new R01 funding (R01AI133706) to test immune interventions in a novel model of postnatal SIV infection and ART suppression in infant rhesus macaques. If her project is successful, this approach will result in decreased viral reservoirs or virologic control following ART interruption, thereby providing information that may assist in the design of new therapeutics for HIV-infected babies.

Bulletin Board...

Faculty Members sought: RSPH/BSHE
The RSPH Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education (BSHE) is seeking forward-looking scholars for tenure and non-tenure track faculty at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor to join their dynamic department. Candidates from diverse disciplines are encouraged to apply.
View the full job ad online

Writing Money and Editorial Support on Offer: CFDE
The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence (CFDE) offers the Scholarly Writing and Publishing (SWAP) fund, a grant program designed to help faculty seeking professional editorial support for projects in development across a range of serious scholarly works, including article manuscripts, grant writing, and digital scholarship.
• Read More About It

Mentees sought: HIV & Aging SWG
On November 16-17 the HIV & Aging Scientific Working Group (SWG) will host a conference -- "HIV and Aging: From Mitochondria to the Metropolis" at the Courtyard by Marriott on Clairmont Rd in downtown Decatur. They are currently seeking applicants for their mentoring day, to be held the morning of 11/16. Applications for the workshop will be accepted until 9/22.
• More Information
• Application

Government News...

The ACTG is trying to encourage investigators to access its Specimen Repository. This repository stores more than three million specimen types from the ACTG and the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Network.

These include blood, serum, plasma, sputum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells, tissue, and other body fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid, semen, and endocervical and cervicovaginal lavage fluid.

To explore what is available, start at Search the Repositories. Choosing and submitting specimen options will generate a results report with the number of specimens and unique participants available, information about the studies for which they were collected, and what research was published for those studies.

NOTE: If you need to search for options that aren't listed, you may request a custom search through the Contact Us link.

Investigators can print, download or link to the generated report, which can be used to write a research proposal to either ACTG or IMPAACT. For more on how to do that, check out Submit a Proposal.

Focus On... Emory ACTU

Speaking of the ACTG (see above), Emory's involvement in the ACTG turned 21 this year!

The AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) was established in 1987 to support HIV research being undertaken by NIH/NIAID. Emory joined the ACTG as a Unit of the University of Alabama, Birmingham ACTG 21 years ago, in 1996.

At that time Emory's contribution was relatively small, centered around the Pediatric ACTG at the Ponce Clinic and a separate ACTG site at Crawford Long Hospital (now Emory Midtown) that provided services for HIV infected men with hemophilia.

We also spearheaded the now extinct Studies of Ocular Complications of AIDS (SOCA) network for which Emory was a major contributor thanks to then Emory faculty member Dan Martin.

Under the leadership of Jeff Lennox, Emory successfully competed to break away from UAB and become its own Unit of the ACTG in 2007. Since then we have made significant contributions to HIV research including, in conjunction with the CDC, growing to four ACTG Clinical Research Sites, two domestic (Ponce Clinic and Hope Clinic) and two international (Kisumu, Kenya and Bangkok, Thailand). Collectively, these sites are making contributions to studies supported by an absolute alphabet soup of excellent research initiatives including the ACTG, HPTN, HVTN, and MTN (all NIAID HIV Networks) as well as the CTN (NIDA Clinical Trials Network) and the ATN (NICHD HIV Research Network).

Three cheers for the Emory Clinical Trials Unit!!

Extra Added Bonus: Interested in reading about what Emory was doing in HIV research BEFORE the advent of the ACTG and CFAR? Grab a cup of coffee and read this extremely interesting article from Emory Medicine written in 1994.

Footlights | CFAR Network Meeting

Host: CFAR Community Liaison Council

Click Here to Register

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The Network News is a periodic email, detailing HIV/AIDS related events, funding opportunities, and achievements of CFAR members. If you have items that you wish to have included, please send them to us at cfar@emory.edu by Friday of each week. Please put "The Network News" in the subject line.

The Network News is distributed to CFAR members and fans by email every Tuesday. Except when it isn't.

Editor, Kimberley (Kimbi) Sessions Hagen, EdD