The UAB Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is a designated University-wide Center, a department-level status, and is concerned by a Constitution and By-Laws. The overall research goals of investigators in the UAB CFAR are to understand at the molecular level, and at the level of the infected individual, the pathogenesis of HIV infection and to utilize this information in conjunction with investigators pursuing experimental therapeutics, vaccine development, and behavioral modification to interfere with this pathogenic process. The multidisciplinary base of the Center ensures the rapid translation of fundamental knowledge about AIDS and its related disorders into these clinical treatment and prevention programs. In order to facilitate this process, the major objectives of the Center for AIDS Research are threefold. 1. To enhance ongoing outstanding research programs by facilitating interdisciplinary interactions, providing critical shared resource facilities, and providing administrative and fiscal management support mechanisms for Center investigators. 2. To stimulate participation of existing junior and established faculty in research programs aimed at AIDS-related subjects. This will be through the continued administration of a peer-reviewed competitive Developmental Grant Program that will provide funding for both developmental and pilot grants. 3. To stimulate recruitment and program developmental efforts in AIDS- related areas. The Center has identified new program areas and will assist Departments and Divisions in the process of investigator recruitment. Thus we anticipate continued growth and development of AIDS-related research in the CFAR. The Center will be led Dr. Eric Hunter (Director) and by an Executive Steering Committee consisting of Dr. George Shaw (Deputy Director) and seven Associate Directors, Drs. Beatrice Hahn (Basic Sciences and Program Development), Laura Leviton (Prevention Sciences), Jiri Mestecky (Vaccine Development), Michael Saag (Clinical Care and Experimental Therapeutics), John-Pierre Sommadossi (Pre-Clinical Therapeutics Development), Richard Whitley (Clinical Sciences) and Sten Vermund (Epidemiology). The Center is comprised of 120 Center members from 24 Divisions and Departments within the University funded by more than 100 AIDS-related grants and contracts totalling more than $35 million in research support. Eleven Core Facilities are proposed (Clinical, Biostatistics, Central Virus, Molecular Biology, DNA Sequence, Flow Cytometry, SCID-hu Mouse, International Research, and Behavioral Science, as well as Developmental and Administrative) that will provide key support for this funded research base. From its inception, the UAB CFAR has played a pivotal role in stimulating and supporting basic and clinical AIDS research and linking the two through interdisciplinary research programs. This has been most evident in the Center's principal thematic areas of viral pathogenesis, experimental therapeutics, and vaccine development. The success of the UAB CFAR is reflected in the growth in extramural funding for AIDS-related research from $4.0 million in 1988 (annual costs) to greater than $35.o million in 1997 (annual costs), the increase in number of R01-type AIDS-related grants from 5 to 50 during this same period, and the large number (>1,000) of AIDS-related publications by Center members in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1993 and 1997. All of the major research efforts within the Center link basic and clinical/behavioral research and together they utilize every shared facility supported by the CFAR Core grant.
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