July 21st is Zero Stigma Day

July 21st marks Zero HIV Stigma Day, spearheading a movement and uniting people, communities, organizations, and entire countries to raise awareness and take action against HIV stigma, which reinforces and amplifies the HIV pandemic and related inequalities. HIV stigma refers to irrational or negative attitudes, behaviors, and judgments towards people living with or at risk of HIV. This day represents a movement to unite people, communities, and countries to help raise awareness about HIV stigma and learn about ways to help stop it. This observance is also in honor of Prudence Mabele, the first Black South African woman to publicly share her HIV status.

This year’s theme, “Human First”, emphasizes the human first dimension of people living with and affected by HIV. The theme also recognizes the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Watch the video above from NASTAD on Intersectionality and Stigma, which recognizes interlocking system of power that impact those who are most marginalized in society.

News from the CFAR

Save the Date and Submit an Abstract for the Annual CFAR Fall Scientific Retreat

The 2023 CFAR Fall Scientific Retreat will be held on Thursday, September 14th in the Great Hall of the Trent Semans Center from 8:30AM – TBD. Stay tuned for the agenda and registration link to come!

All pre- and post-doctoral trainees, as well as junior faculty conducting HIV/AIDS-related research at Duke are encouraged to submit an abstract for a poster presentation at the 19th annual CFAR Fall Scientific Retreat. This is an opportunity to share your research design, progress, and new insights with others in the Duke University community and community members from the CFAR’s D3C (Duke Collaborative Community Council). Final results are not required, and ‘works in progress’ and posters that have been recently presented at other meetings are welcome. 

Submitted abstracts will be judged competitively, and one from each category will be selected to give an in-person TED-style talk during the Retreat (in lieu of a poster). In addition to their poster, each investigator will also be required to create an Infographic/Flyer of their work to communicate key messages from the poster to a broad audience in lay language. See the Call for Abstracts for more details, including format, templates, and resources as well as a link to the Qualtrics survey for abstract submission.

Abstracts are due Thursday, August 10th. Abstracts selected for TED-style presentations at the Retreat will be announced by August 17th.

Learn more about the retreat and abstract submission.

Engage the D3C & Local Community in Your Research!

The Duke Collaborative Community Council (D3C) was formed in January 2023 to support the Duke CFAR in community-centered research and outreach activities. The D3C is made up of community members across Durham, the Triangle, and other parts of North Carolina who care about breaking down the stigma around HIV and promoting HIV prevention & care. They bring a wealth of advocacy, lived experience, and connection to the broader community.

The D3C is able to provide consultations to CFAR research teams to give feedback on grant proposal development or activities related to implementation of research projects and dissemination of results. For example, the D3C has consulted on recruitment strategies, provided insight on best practices for compensation or methods of data collection, and given advice on dissemination to ensure that study findings are communicated back to research participants and the broader community. Several D3C members are located in Mecklenburg County, the only current Ending the HIV Epidemic priority location in North Carolina.

The full D3C meets every other month for 90 minutes. If investigators are interested in getting feedback from the D3C during the meetings, we ask that the request be limited to 30 minutes of the meeting and focus more on feedback that is conversational and can happen easily in-person rather than review of long documents, etc. If investigators would like more input and involvement from community members beyond this (such as help with recruitment or developing materials), we are happy to see if there is interest among our members to support the project in more of a consultant capacity, paid hourly from the project’s fund and can help facilitate this process.

To learn more or request a consultation with the D3C or on other community engagement strategies, please contact Lizzy Knippler at elizabeth.knippler@duke.edu.

Last month, the D3C hosted their first outreach event in collaboration with CAARE and the African American COVID-19 Task Force. The event offered food, a DJ, and entertainment, along with vendor tables offering services and information related to health, wellness, and social services - including HIV testing, Hepatitis C information, and educational materials on PrEP from our very own Duke PrEP Clinic and the Durham County Department of Public Health. Stay tuned for future outreach opportunities with the D3C!

Due July 31st: Submit Your Nominations for the 2023 Outstanding Leadership in Scientific Mentoring Award!

In partnership with the Duke School of Medicine and the Duke Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), the long-standing NIH T32 Duke Interdisciplinary Research Training Program in HIV/AIDS (IRTPA) has recognized the outstanding and important leadership role of early career investigators in: generating a scientifically rigorous and inclusive environment to mentor early career scientists and colleagues & supporting the innovation of their own research to advance scientific knowledge to improve human health.

If you would like to nominate an early career investigator for the 2023 Outstanding Leadership in Scientific Mentoring Award, please fill out the nomination form by the deadline of July 31, 2023

Submit a nomination.

IAS Satellite Session: Advancing Implementation Science for Adolescent HIV in High Burden African Countries

Monday, July 24, 2023 | 5:30-6:30pm EDT

Note: For those in-person at the conference in Brisbane, the session is Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 7:30am

This symposium at the AIDS 2023 Conference will highlight the findings from the May 2023 “Advancing Implementation Science for Adolescent HIV Prevention and Treatment in High Burden African Countries” supplement in AIDS & Behavior. This special supplement represents the collective learning of the Adolescent HIV Prevention and Treatment Implementation Science Alliance (AHISA) related to implementation science in the context of the adolescent HIV continuum of care from multiple African countries. Specifically, this symposium will describe the current academic landscape of adolescent HIV and implementation science, such as the methodological use and utility of implementation measures and frameworks; address timely topics such as the use of innovative technologies for study adaptations in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic; and explore opportunities to enhance adolescent-responsive approaches to HIV prevention and treatment using implementation science.

Learn about the session and read the supplement.

July NIDA HIV Seminar - Ending the HIV Epidemic in the US: How do we intervene to meet our ambitious goals?

Wednesday, July 26, 2023 | 1pm EDT | Zoom

Join the NIDA HIV Research Program in welcoming Dr. Bohdan Nosyk of Simon Fraser University, on July 26, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. ET for the next installment of the online NIDA HIV Seminar Series.



Bohdan Nosyk, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and St. Paul’s Hospital CANFAR Chair in HIV/AIDS Research at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, and leads the Health Economic Research Unit at the Center for Health Evaluation & Outcome Sciences. Dr. Nosyk’s research seeks to inform complex policy decisions surrounding the prevention and management of HIV/AIDS and substance use disorders. He has led population-level evaluations related to these dual epidemics in China, in the state of California; across urban centers in the US; as well as his local region in British Columbia. He combines simulation modeling methods and cost-effectiveness analyses with econometric and biostatistical investigation of health administrative data. Dr. Nosyk’s teaching interests are in the areas of health economic evaluation and health services research. Register now for an opportunity to interact with one of the world's experts on how HIV and SUDs impact each other now with a look to the future. 

Register for the seminar.

HANC Webinar - Diversity and Inclusion in HIV & AIDS Clinical Research: The Role of Language Justice (Pt 2)



Wednesday, August 2, 2023 |2-3pm EDT | Zoom

Agenda

• Recap of Part 1 (Pedro Goicochea, HANC)
• Participation of Hispanics and Latinx individuals in HIV vaccines/COVID-19 vaccines clinical research (Michele Andrasik, HVTN)

The enrollment of Hispanic and Latinx people in HIV clinical research is low; however, these populations account for the nearly 30% of HIV incidence in the US (CDC, 2023). The limited provision of Spanish language services in the context of HIV research may contribute to the low enrollment of Hispanic and Latinx individuals with limited English proficiency. Organized by the Latinx Caucus of the Legacy Project, this webinar will contribute to understanding how language can be a key tool to help facilitate the inclusion of more diverse participants in the conduct of HIV research.

This webinar will be very relevant to investigators, study coordinators, program officers and managers, protocol specialists, community educators and recruiters, other clinical research staff and the general public. 

Register for the webinar. 

Community and Clinical Research Training Program applications due July 31st

The Brown University Community and Clinical Research Training (CCRT) Program is an educational and mentoring program to promote training in clinical and community-based research for new investigators who are from or who conduct research in geographic hotspots of HIV infection. The CCRT Program aims to train the next generation of researchers to end the HIV epidemic and to conduct research related to reducing racial disparities in HIV outcomes.

There still have slots for training opportunities in this NIH-funded R25 training program in applied clinical and community research focused on ending the HIV epidemic. This program is a partnership with scholars from Brown University and the University of Washington. This initiative and the mentoring curriculum will align with the US Plan to End the HIV Epidemic (EtHE). The program prioritizes training investigators from communities historically underrepresented in the sciences, with emphasis on training investigators from or conducting practice-oriented research in geographic hotspots of HIV infection, with a focus on the South. 

This structured mentoring program will focus on community-engaged scholarship, geographically circumscribed interventions, reducing racial disparities in HIV infection, partnering with health departments, and delivering proven HIV prevention and care interventions through novel means. We encourage, but do not require, our trainees to work in the American South. 

The 2023-2025 curriculum year will be held virtually over zoom, applicants from across the country are encouraged to apply.

Applications are due July 31, 2023.

Learn more and apply.

The Research Scholars Program supports innovative research from emerging investigators around the world to incorporate new perspectives in our pursuit of scientific understanding and progress. We believe that new, diverse voices and research topics are needed to advance scientific knowledge in areas of unmet medical need and create a healthier world.

The program is designed to support any innovative basic, clinical, behavioral, epidemiological, implementation science and community-based participatory scientific research related to HIV. The HIV program provides a minimum of 4 awards. Each award is funded up to $180,000 USD for two years, to be paid in annual installments of up to $90,000 USD per year.

Applications will be reviewed and selected by an independent Scientific Review Committee comprised of internationally recognized experts in basic and clinical research in the field of HIV. Gilead’s Research Scholars Program is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive scientific community.

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Hold an MD, DO, PhD, or equivalent degree at time of award
• Received your initial faculty appointment within the last 5 years at the time of application
• Have a strong career interest in HIV
• Have a research mentor with extensive experience in their field (co-mentorship is accepted)
• Be able to devote approximately 50% of professional time to research
• Be able to complete the proposed research within the 2-year award period

Applications are due September 16, 2023.

Learn more and apply.

NCI Funding Opportunity

RFA-CA-22-056 - Basic/Translational Research on Health Disparities in Underrepresented People Living with HIV (PLWH) and Cancer (R01 Clinical Trial Not Allowed)

Through this funding opportunity announcement, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) intends to focus on the biological interactions of cancer health disparities in people living with HIV (PLWH) from underrepresented minority groups through basic mechanistic or translational studies to investigate how HIV interacts with health disparities to promote both non-AIDS and AIDS-defining cancer initiation, progression, and the resulting pathogenic disease sequelae.

ACTG and IMPAACT Network Repositories Available for Study

The ACTG and IMPAACT Networks have repositories of well-characterized residual specimens from Network Clinical Trials that are available for study. Investigators may research specimens available for study by following the link to the repository website.

The Investigators would then submit a research proposal to the respective Network. Following careful review and based on the Scientific Merit and the ability to carry out the proposed study, the use of the specimens would be approved.

Learn more and explore the respositories.

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