The overall objectives of the San Diego Center for AIDS Research (SD CFAR) Scientific Working Group (SWG) Program are to: a) identify promising new areas of HIV research through our strategic planning process, b) develop research expertise and capacity in these areas, and c) coordinate education and new collaborations across SD CFAR institutions and with the HIV community. We designed our SWG Program to be flexible to respond to new opportunities as they arise. This flexibility is critical since we plan to adopt 2-3 new SWG topics during the proposed 5-year funding cycle. Topics will reflect NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) priorities and local resources and expertise. We propose to first focus on HIV & Aging, a topic that was chosen by our membership through our strategic planning process because we have considerable resources and expertise in this area that could be strengthened by identifying synergies and creating collaborations. While SD CFAR institutions have multiple successful programs that focus on either HIV or aging, there efforts have not yet been combined to investigate aging-related issues in people living with HIV. We propose to organize the work of the SWG into three aims.
Aim 1 will focus on engaging and networking scientists in HIV and Aging-related fields to identify opportunities for collaboration and new research. Targeted disciplines will include Geriatrics, Biological Aging, Genomics, and Microbiome Science.
Aim 2 will strengthen these connections by disseminating new research findings on HIV & Aging via a seminar series and other methods and by coordinating mentoring of junior investigators toward independence.
Aim 3 will focus on building the research program to self-sustainability, monitoring progress, and strategic planning to identify the next SWG topic. We anticipate that success in these aims will foster new collaborations among scientists from different disciplines and backgrounds. To support these aims, we have recruited two new investigators to lead the SWG, one experienced in HIV & Aging translational science (Scott Letendre, M.D., UCSD) and the other experienced in basic science (Scott Peterson, Ph.D., Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Research Institute). Drs. Letendre and Peterson have worked together on gut microbiome research and mentoring of junior investigators and are well suited to lead the SWG moving forward.
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