The overall objectives of the Clinical Research Core (CRC) over the next 5 years are to promote and support clinical HIV research in the Pacific Northwest region through: 1) Recruitment and referral of HIV-infected persons into clinical research protocols to increase the productivity of these funded studies, 2) Expansion of the UW HIV Specimen Repository to support translational clinical and pathogenesis research and 3) Expansion of the Study Assistance and Specimen Collection Service to aid investigators in the enrollment and implementation of their HIV research protocols Recruitment and referral of potential research subjects will be performed by a dedicated research referral nurse who screens all UW Registry patients cared for at the UW HIV clinics, identifies eligible patients based on study criteria and refers patients to study coordinators for enrollment. Expansion of the UW HIV Specimen Repository will be accomplished by continued, targeted enrollment of HIV+ subjects at the UW HIV clinics and linkage to other research groups such as the CFAR Network of Integrated Systems (C-NICS) and the Kampala HIV discordant couples study. Increased utilization of the Repository will continue due to enhanced CRC advertising efforts and since the Repository has now reached a size sufficient to accommodate investigator requests. Expansion of the Study Assist and Specimen Collection Service will be possible due to the increased expertise of CRC staff, the availability of space (examination room) and resources (office equipment, freezers, liquid nitrogen tanks) and the enhanced advertisement of these services to regional investigators. These activities will tightly link the CRC to the Clinical Epidemiology and Health Services Research, Clinical Retrovirology, Developmental, International and Sociobehavioral and Prevention Cores, all the UW CFAR Institutions (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, UW School of Medicine, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center) and other local and national research groups. These strategies serve to augment existing funded research programs that depend on successful accrual of patients and access to patient specimens. This value-added approach directly supports the large, diverse HIV research programs that exist at the University of Washington, and provides ready access to HIV infected patients, patient specimens and the clinical resources needed to implement clinical studies. These efforts advance the clinical HIV research agendas of local and national HIV investigators and contribute to the fight against HIV and AIDS by providing researchers with the clinical resources needed to conduct their investigations. These resources include access to potential research subjects, patient specimens (such as blood components) and the space and tools needed to perform their research.
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