The Principal Investigator, Dr. Samantha MaWhinney, will devote her efforts to learning immunology and virology relevant to HIV/AIDS research. She will develop a working knowledge of the field as it applies to translational research, the application of discoveries in the basic sciences to the prevention, early detection, and treatment of disease. Dr. MaWhinney will identify new collaborative projects with her basic science and clinical investigator host/mentors. To accomplish this she will: a) take a course in molecular and cellular biology; b) take a course in immunology; c) attend lectures on HIV/AIDS virology; d) attend seminars on HIV/AIDS; e) spend the remainder rotating between the laboratories of her mentor/hosts training on immunology/virology laboratory assays and gaining an understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms; and f) work on specific hypothesis-driven projects. Dr. MaWhinney will identify multivariate, longitudinally collected immunologic and virologic outcomes to incorporate in dynamic biologically-accurate models relying on multivariate state-space and mixed-effects, varying-coefficient methods and the interaction of mathematical models with statistical inference. Dr. MaWhinney will apply the knowledge and experience she gains through the IGMS award in the broader context of biostatistics education and research at her university, and in the wider communities of biostatistics, HIV/AIDS, immunology, virology and clinical trials. She plans on organizing and giving seminars for HIV/AIDS researchers and biostatisticians. She aims to publish collaborative and methods papers in the biostatistical and HIV/AIDS research literature. In addition, her IGMS proposal is being used as the model for an immunology/infectious disease track for an interdisciplinary training grant for biostat PhD students which will be submitted to The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) in September. This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).
