UCSF AIDS Research Institute

As this year’s meeting gets underway, special congratulations for the 2019 appointment of Diane Havlir, M.D., professor and associate chair of clinical research, department of medicine, and chief, Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. For leadership positions in the World Health Organization and the International AIDS Society, challenging conventions in HIV treatment and prevention, and dedic...ation to ending the epidemic. professor and associate chair of clinical research, department of medicine, and chief, Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. For leadership positions in the World Health Organization and the International AIDS Society, challenging conventions in HIV treatment and prevention, and dedication to ending the epidemic. See more

Gabriel Chamie receives 2020 HIVMA Research Award Gabriel Chamie, MD, MPH is the recipient of the 2020 HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) Research award for innovative and significant contributions to HIV research an award that recognizes early- and mid-career HIVMA members who have made significant contributions to advancing the field. Dr. Chamie is an Associate Professor of Medicine in Residence in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine at the Univers...ity of California, San Francisco (UCSF)/San Francisco General Hospital. He has been conducting HIV and TB clinical and epidemiological research in sub-Saharan Africa since 2008. His research interests include community-based HIV testing, TB/HIV co-infection, TB transmission dynamics and behavioral economic interventions to promote prevention of HIV and TB in East Africa. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, his interests also include SARS-CoV-2 testing and inequities in SARS-CoV-2 infection in the U.S., as an investigator with the Unidos en Salud/ United in Health study in San Francisco. He is Principal Investigator of the IBIS-Health study, investigating novel behavioral economic approaches to increase HIV testing and treatment in rural Uganda. He is co-PI of the Drinkers’ Intervention to Prevent TB (DIPT) study evaluating conditional incentives to reduce heavy alcohol use and to increase INH adherence during isoniazid preventive therapy among heavy drinking people living with TB/HIV co-infection. He is a co-investigator in the SEARCH consortium, protocol chair of the SEARCH-IPT study, and served as Chair of the HIV Testing Working Group for the SEARCH Universal test and treat trial from 2013-2017, implementing population-wide HIV testing in 32 communities of 10,000 persons each in Uganda and Kenya. He has an active clinical practice in HIV and TB clinics and the inpatient Infectious Diseases Consult service at San Francisco General Hospital. Congratulations!

The New Plague: What have we learned? An online conversation with Dr. Jaime Sepulveda, Executive Director of the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences. Recorded Tuesday, October 6 at noon (GMT-7), here is link to the video https://youtu.be/g0Vc6CWm8UA.

How close are we to a cure? Episode 24 of IMPACT features Dr. Paul Volberding, a global pioneer in HIV/AIDS research and treatment. Dr. Volberding is the Direct...or of the UCSF AIDS Research Institute and Founding Chair of the Board of the International Antiviral Society. He was also involved in the first clinical trials for antiretroviral therapy, and established the world's first outpatient clinic for people with AIDS back in 1983. Dr. Volberding and host Shane Allen talk about the big question: How close are we to a cure for HIV and AIDS? See more

Save the date! We are thrilled to invite you to a livestream event on 10/8 featuring excerpts from Angels in America, the seminal American artwork about AIDS.... The broadcast will be a pared-down, 1-hour version of the play and will draw parallels between COVID-19 and the early days of the AIDS epidemic, as the play has more to tell us than anything else about how to persevere through a plague. The livestream will be free, but you can join our special live conversation with a $100 one-time or $35/month donation to our Fund to Fight COVID-19. RSVP here: https://bit.ly/36jrL0d Hope to see you there!

In Memoriam -Timothy Ray Brown March 11, 1966 September 29, 2020 Our CFAR, UCSF, and the HIV Cure research community mourns the passing of Timothy Ray Brown, an incredibly kind and special man whose participation in cure research had a huge impact on the whole field.... Timothy Brown came to San Francisco and was a patient in our clinic after his HIV cure. He agreed amiably to almost every procedure the cure team put him through to demonstrate the HIV cure; he was pleasant, courteous, kind and just wanted to help others in the research agenda of HIV remission and cure. He was a truly kind and wonderful man who will be sorely missed by Ward 86. ---Monica Gandhi, Medical Director of Ward 86 at San Francisco General Hospital * * * * * * * Timothy showed up on Ward 86 a few years after having been cured. It turns out that he was seeking a new doctor and had been referred to me. I just showed up to clinic one day, and there he was, this famous but very humble person, sitting patiently in our waiting room. Because we were not quite sure he was fully cured, and there were lots of questions about what had happened, we invited him to join the SCOPE cohort. We started with getting lots of blood, but this did not prove very informative. We next asked if he would undergo a gut biopsy, and then a lymph node biopsy, and eventually even a spinal tap, all of which he did without complaint. We told him that the scientists in Minneapolis were the best at looking for HIV in the tissues, and he agreed to a quick trip to the University of Minnesota, with three invasive procedures done in 24 hours. When people asked me why he was so generous, all I could say was that it was pure altruism. He really wanted to give back to the community. Anyone who met him was not surprised by these sacrifices. He was a genuinely lovely man who cared about others and always wanted to help. Those sacrifices he made had a huge impact on the emerging cure agenda. He eventually left San Francisco but kept in touch and returned periodically as needed to help with the research. He eventually became a real leader in the cure efforts and was a frequent speaker at meetings. Bumping into him at those meetings was always a highlight for me. He will be missed by everyone, including all of those who knew him on Ward 86 and those who worked with him in the SCOPE program. -- Dr. Steven Deeks, Director of the SCOPE Cohort and Co-Director of the CFAR Clinical and Population Sciences Core

We are deeply saddened by the passing yesterday of Timothy Ray Brown, The Berlin Patient the first person known to be cured of HIV. The subject of intense s...cientific scrutiny, Timothy was a willing participant in, and an outspoken advocate for, HIV cure research. A gentle soul who made history, he will be sorely missed. See more

In this UCSF Medical Grand Rounds, the Honorable Mayor London Breed, San Francisco Department of Public Health Director Grant Colfax, and Director of Population Health Tomás Aragón describe San Francisco’s COVID-19 experience and how the city managed COVID thus far. UCSF faculty Diane Havlir, George Rutherford, and Paul Volberding explore how the work on HIV in the 80’s and 90’s informed our responses to COVID, and the role of UCSF in the city’s successes.

New: Global Health Fellowship Opportunity in Mexico Applications are open for 2021-22 GloCal Fellowship Deadline: November 2, 2020 This year, GloCal is specific...ally seeking candidates proposing research in Mexico, especially in Tijuana. Applications addressing COVID-19, including its intersection with HIV, mental health, environmental health are particularly encouraged. Please notify potential candidates! Learn more: https://ucghi.universityofcalifornia.edu//apply-now-glocal

In Search of a Vaccine for COVID-19: Science and Politics The Institute for Global Health Sciences in partnership with the Department of Medicine presented gra...nd rounds on #COVID-19 #vaccines #development #distribution and #hesitancy with Peter Hotez, Jaime Sepulveda, and Heidi Larson, moderated by Dr. Bob Wachter of @UCSF. Video of the session is here: https://youtu.be/jdJ680Y4o2Q See more

URGENT: Application deadline is fast approaching for the UCSF AIDS Research Institute Strategic Support awards. See link below to more information and get your application in by September 18!

"We're seeing declines in new diagnoses across most groups, and that means we're moving in the right direction," Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax, a gay man hired by Mayor London Breed last year, told the Bay Area Reporter in a Zoom interview. https://www.ebar.com//2969/sf_hiv_cases_fell_by_19_in_2019