For the first time in Southern California, surgeons at UC San Diego Health have transplanted the kidney of a deceased donor with HIV into a recipient with a pre-existing HIV infection. The procedure is part of an unprecedented multi-site national clinical trial.
A new collection of articles highlighting the science and complexity of inclusion, diversity, access, and equity is now available online, part of an ongoing commitment to drive improvements within the field of infectious diseases and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). Published as a supplement to The Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID), the IDSA-sponsored collection includes articles written by both Society members and authors outside the field with deep knowledge and seasoned perspectives on these important issues.
The Rutgers School of Public Health is excited to announce that Vince Silenzio, MD, MPH, will be joining the department of urban-global public health as a professor in November 2019.
Contrary to the long-held view that semen can only act as a way to transmit HIV-1 from men to women, scientists at The Wistar Institute and the University of Puerto Rico found that frequent and sustained semen exposure can change the characteristics of the circulating and vaginal tissue immune cells that are targets for infection, reducing the susceptibility to a future infection.
Luis R. Martinez, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso, will investigate the basis for Cryptococcus neoformans, a fungus that invades the central nervous system.
The vaginal microbiome is believed to protect women against Chlamydia trachomatis, the etiological agent of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in developed countries.
Elderly cancer patients who are HIV-positive, particularly those with prostate and breast cancers, have worse outcomes compared to cancer patients in the same age range who do not have HIV. A Moffitt Cancer Center researcher, in collaboration with investigators at the National Cancer Institute, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, took a closer look at the disparity, factoring in whether or not cancer treatment had an impact on outcomes among this patient population. Their findings were published today in JAMA Oncology.
Statement from IDSA, HIVMA, SHEA, and PIDS. The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s policy and practice of allowing immigrant families to be separated because a parent is living with HIV runs counter to more than three decades of science and to existing public health guidelines.
Global diagnostics firm Randox will attend the 71st AACC Annual Scientific Meeting and will showcase its unique life science capabilities in areas including Stroke differentiation and quality control for a range of infectious diseases.
A team of scientists led by Texas Biomed’s Assistant Professor Smita Kulkarni, Ph.D. and Mary Carrington, Ph.D., at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, published results of a study that pinpointed a long noncoding RNA molecule which influences a key receptor involved in HIV infection and progression of the disease.
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed a novel vaccine consisting of DNA and recombinant proteins⸺proteins composed of a portion of an HIV protein and another unrelated protein.
The World Health Organization’s declaration today that the year-long Ebola crisis is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is hoped to raise much-needed awareness and resources for preparedness and control efforts across the region. The decision was made following new incidents highlighting risks of repeated cross-border spread of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Even after nearly a decade of strict HIV treatment, cells sheltering the virus could be found in the cerebrospinal fluid of half of participants in a national clinical trial of people living with HIV. Moreover, those participants had higher likelihood of cognitive deficits.
Rutgers researchers find patients who perceive their primary care providers as lacking empathy and not willing to include them in decision making are at risk for abandoning treatment or not seeking treatment at all
Women living with HIV are less likely than men to achieve viral suppression with antiretroviral therapy. Reduction in alcohol use is a possible strategy to improve health outcomes in women with HIV, with evidence that unhealthy alcohol use (>7 drinks per week or >4 drinks per occasion for women) is associated with poorer adherence to treatment, lower rates of viral suppression, and faster disease progression. Several medications are available on prescription to help reduce drinking, including naltrexone, which is taken as a once-daily pill; however, none have been studied in relation to clinical outcomes in people with HIV. Researchers from universities in Florida have conducted a clinical trial, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research , to understand the effect of naltrexone on drinking behavior and clinical outcomes in women with HIV who engage in unhealthy alcohol use, exceeding recommended drinking levels.
Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, a longtime faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, globally recognized AIDS researcher and advocate, and former president of the International AIDS Society (IAS), is among five finalists to lead the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
For the first time researchers have been able to completely eliminate HIV from a mouse model. It marks a critical step toward the development of a possible cure for human HIV infection.
When people suffer from both HIV and TB, it creates “one of the biggest health problems in the world,” according to Texas Biomed Assistant Professor Smita Kulkarni, Ph.D. Now, the National Institutes of Health is funding a two-year study by Texas Biomed scientists developing a lab model that mimics the early stages of the co-infection of these two diseases.
Northeast Ohio philanthropist Roe Green has added $9 million to her original gift of $5 million from 2014 to the travel medicine and global health center named for her at University Hospitals based in Cleveland.
Scientists have taken a common, yet laborious lab test and redesigned it to be performed in small 3D printed pipette tips used to measure and transfer fluids in the laboratory.
HIV testing is expensive ($50 to $200 per test), technically complex, and requires trained technicians. Researchers are developing a rapid, disposable, automated, and low-cost HIV viral load assay to increase timely access to HIV care and to improve treatment outcomes. The technology is highly sensitive, inexpensive (less than $1), and quick (results in 45 minutes or less). Moreover, the technology is highly stable, and doesn’t require refrigeration or a regular electric supply to enable HIV viral load at point-of-care settings.
New testing methods being developed by Molecular Testing Labs and Boise State University utilize RNA molecular signatures, which can be detected using cutting edge technology and lab techniques. This means that people at risk for contracting HIV can get tested much earlier than current methods – typically within the same week as the potential exposure.
Nurse practitioners are more likely to conduct HIV screenings if they feel that their colleagues support routine screenings, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. This comes in advance of National HIV Testing Day, taking place June 27.
Perry N. Halkitis, the author Out in Time: From Stonewall to Queer, How Gay Men Came of Age Across the Generations, addresses how Stonewall and the AIDS crisis have brought awareness and changes the ways the medical profession addresses health care of LGBTQ people.
Duke researchers describe a previously unidentified route for antibodies to be transferred from the mother to the fetus, illuminating a potential way to capitalize on this process to control when and how certain antibodies are shared.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a seven-year, $23 million grant to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System to study HIV and the chronic illnesses that often accompany HIV infection, including cardiovascular and lung disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Sanjay B. Maggirwar, PhD, MBA, has been selected to serve as chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
The Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement Wednesday that it will halt funding for research involving the use of human fetal tissue conducted within the National Institutes of Health
Every day, there are more than 1 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among people aged 15-49 years, according to data released today by the World Health Organization.
The results of a study led by physicians at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center showed that patients living with HIV and one of a variety of potentially deadly cancers could be safely treated with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, also known by its brand name, KEYTRUDA®.
Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center took a step toward making gene therapy more practical by simplifying the way gene-editing instructions are delivered to cells. Using a gold nanoparticle instead of an inactivated virus, they safely delivered gene-editing tools in lab models of HIV and inherited blood disorders, as reported May 27 in Nature Materials.
According to scientists who study women infected with HIV, statistics often paint an impressionist view of the lives of these women that misses the granular detail that tells the real story. The imprecise big picture is that most of this population is doing a good job at suppressing the virus, but facts gathered on the ground show that many struggle with issues of daily living that can make taking a pill to keep HIV at bay difficult.
A new HIV vaccine delivery strategy appears to enhance the protective immune response in a preclinical model. Scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have discovered that delivering an HIV vaccine in small doses over a series of days leads to a stronger immune response than when the same vaccine is given all at once.
In honor of National Women’s Health Week, the REACH Program (Respectful and Equitable Access to Comprehensive Healthcare) at Mount Sinai is hosting a Women’s Health Fair for the Harlem and surrounding communities.
Children with HIV are much more susceptible to TB and also much more likely to die from it. This grant will fund international research to investigate why, both in the lab and in the field.
University at Buffalo researchers interviewed a small sample of PrEP-prescribing providers in New York State to conduct a qualitative analysis of their perspectives on the preventive medication.
Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) announces the appointment of Deus Bazira, DrPH, MPH, MBA, BPharm, an expert in health systems strengthening and a public health practitioner with decades of in-depth field level practical experience in global health in emerging economies, to establish and co-direct Georgetown’s new Center for Global Health Practice and Impact (CGHPI).
Researchers have used a molecular “can opener” and advanced imaging to expose parts of the HIV envelope and reveal in detail a previously unknown virus shape with unique vulnerabilities that can be targeted by antibodies. This could open new directions for vaccine development.
Timed vaginal insemination is a safe, effective way to help HIV-affected couples conceive, finds a new pilot study in Kenya led by a Michigan Medicine researcher.
Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation have revealed an open-access, web-based portal that integrates more than 40 advanced bioinformatics data sources to allow non-technical users to generate insights in one click. Called Metascape, this tool removes data analysis barriers—allowing researchers to spend more time on important biological questions and less time building and troubleshooting a data analysis workflow. The platform was described today in Nature Communications.
Southern Research announced today that April M. Brys, Ph.D., an experienced life sciences executive with a strong track record in research and leadership roles, has been named vice president of the non-profit organization’s Drug Development division.
In a first on the quest to cure HIV, University of Pittsburgh scientists report that they’ve developed an all-in-one immunotherapy approach that not only kicks HIV out of hiding in the immune system, but also kills it. The key lies in immune cells designed to recognize an entirely different virus.