Chicago has the 6th highest HIV prevalence of large cities in the US;three medical institutions are located right in the middle of the communities with the highest prevalence of HIV in Chicago. More than 100 investigators in these institutions are currently involved in HIV/AIDS research. This proposal is to establish a Chicago Developmental Center for AIDS Research (D-CFAR) that will include Rush University Medical Center (RUMC), the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), and the Cook County Bureau of Health Services (Cook County) and will foster HIV/AIDS related research productivity. Dr. Alan Landay (RUMC) will be the Director and Dr. Robert Bailey (UIC) will be the Co-Director. The D-CFAR will build upon existing collaborative research efforts in basic, clinical, and behavioral science and will work toward expanding research opportunities for junior HIV investigators and to engage senior investigators from other disciplines in HIV/AIDS research. We plan to 1) develop an infrastructure that enhances HIV research across institutional boundaries, 2) work toward establishing interdisciplinary collaborations between investigators in the basic, social and behavioral and clinical areas of research, 3) encourage innovative research in HIV/AIDS, 4) improve communication between Chicago D-CFAR participants by creating a web site (www.ChicagoDCFAR. org), distributing a database of participants and emailing news of D-CFAR events to all participants, 5) develop access to HIV educational material, 6) develop a communication strategy for bringing advances in HIV/AIDS research to the community and 7) build an infrastructure to enable us to move from a D-CFAR to a CFAR. We will accomplish these goals by creating Cores and Emphasis Areas. There will be: an Administrative Core (Drs. Alan Landay and Linda Baum);a Developmental Core (Drs. Greg Spear and Ron Hershow);a Basic Science Core (Drs. Michael Caffrey and James Bremer);a Clinical Core (Drs. Audrey French and Richard Novak);and a Social and Behavioral Sciences Core (Drs. Judith Levy and Robert Bailey). We will actively promote research in: HIV and Women (Ms. Kathleen Weber);HIV and Aging (Dr. Pauline Maki) and Drug Abuse and HIV (Dr. Celeste Napier).
The Formation of a Chicago D-CFAR will enable us to create an environment that fosters collaboration between investigators at RUMC, UIC and Cook County and will promote translational research and lead to a better understanding of HIV pathogenesis and better ways to prevent, detect and treat HIV/AIDS.
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