The Adult and Pediatric Clinical Core at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center will serve to provide clinical specimens to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center's CFAR investigators. In addition, our well established Clinical Trials Unit will facilitate clinical trials of therapies and vaccines developed by CFAR investigators. Clinical investigators involved in the Clinical Core will participate in scientific exchange and collaboration with basic science investigators in the CFAR. The Adult and Pediatric Clinical Core has long term (greater than 10 years) cohort studies involving approximately 130 HIV infected individuals with hemophilia and 25 uninfected normal controls. Over the past 14 years, an extensive repository of clinical specimens has been collected and stored for studies of pathogenesis. In addition to the Adult Cohort, there is an ongoing enrollment of HIV infected pregnant women and HIV infected infants and children as part of the Western New England Pediatric Aids Clinical Trials Unit and the Women and Infants Transmission Study. We current follow approximately 200 infected infants and children and we identify approximately 30-40 new HIV infected pregnant women each year. The Adult and Pediatric Clinical Core will provide partial support for a research nurse and a research technician. The research nurse will be responsible for collection of clinical specimens for CFAR investigators and will be responsible for documentation of clinical histories and treatment regimens. The research technician will be responsible for the preparation, storage and cataloging of all clinical samples obtained for CFAR investigators. Clinical samples will be allocated to CFAR investigators by a Clinical Core committee composed of two clinical and two basic scientist member of the CFAR. The Adult and Pediatric Clinical Core will sponsor scientific conferences which encourage """"""""bench to bedside"""""""" translational research within the CFAR and encourages the initiation of phase I clinical trials of novel HIV-1 therapies.
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