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NIH funds research network for youth with, at risk for HIV
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The NIH has awarded up to $24 million in funding to a research network whose goal is to improve and protect the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults with HIV or at risk for HIV infection, according to a press release.
This year the awards will fund three research centers and a data coordinating center for a program known as the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN). The goal of the ATN is to get at-risk youth into proper care, while also offering them the opportunity to participate in research trials that have the potential to improve their health and that of others.
“Most new HIV infections occur in young people,” Bill G. Kapogiannis, MD, network co-director and medical officer at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), said in the release. “Many in this population go a long time before they find out they have HIV and often do not get the care they need.”
The centers created with the NIH funds also will conduct studies aimed at preventing HIV infection among youth.
Sonia Lee, PhD, network co-director and program officer at NICHD, said the centers and their programs will help to identify youth at risk for HIV to prevent further infection.
“Many at-risk youths are not aware that they need HIV and [sexually transmitted infection] testing or prevention services,” Lee said in the release. “ATN studies will focus on helping this population engage with available services and avoid behaviors that increase the risk of HIV infection.”
Leading researchers at the centers include: Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, PhD, the University of California, Los Angeles; Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, the University of North Carolina; Patrick Sullivan, MD, Emory University; Sylvie Naar-King, PhD, Wayne State University; Bonita Stanton, PhD, Seton Hall University; and Jeffrey Parsons, PhD, Hunter College.
Myra Carpenter, PhD, and Michael Hudgens, PhD, will serve as co-principal investigators for the coordinating center at the University of North Carolina. This center will serve as the central resource for network communications, cataloging of biosamples and data management.
Additional funding for the ATN will be provided by the NIH Office of AIDS Research. Other NIH institutes that will collaborate with the ATN include the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, the release said.
Disclosures: Kapogiannis and Lee are employed by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.