Despite significant advances in the HIV/AIDS research effort, particularly in the development of potent antiretroviral drugs, the AIDS epidemic remains a major global public health problem. Therapeutic regimens have greatly improved in recent years and for those populations with access to combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), HIV-1 infection is treatable as a chronic infection. Nonetheless, there remains a strong need to invest in research focused on HIV/AIDS and to train young investigators entering the field. Problems that remain in dealing with this epidemic are formidable. We do not have an effective vaccine against HIV-1 nor do we have an effective microbicidal strategy. Drug resistance to cART is an ongoing clinical challenge. Despite the efficacy of cART in most individuals, a long-lived viral reservoir persists, and efforts to reactive this reservoir and reveal it to an effective immune response have been challenging. It is imperative that the next generation of researchers studying HIV/AIDS be trained in interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to combat the immunodeficiency caused by infection, and the global impact of the epidemic. These scientists need to focus on new and emerging areas of HIV research recently identified by the NIH as research priorities, including research to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS and research towards a cure; understanding and controlling HIV comorbidities and coinfections; as well as basic biology of HIV transmission and pathogenesis. The Pitt AIDS Research Training (PART) Program was established to train predoctoral students to perform high-quality research on HIV/AIDS at these interfaces, en route to postdoctoral and independent investigator positions. In this proposal we seek to renew the funding for the PART Program for another five-year period under the new leadership of Dr. Phalguni Gupta, an experienced retrovirologist, and Dr. Simon Barratt- Boyes, a respected immunologist. The PART Program is in the midst of its 10th year and has been very successful to date, having supported the training of 30 predoctoral students who have published 115 papers as PART trainees. This foundation of success and productivity will serve as the basis for extending and improving the PART Program to continue to train excellent, well-rounded investigators in cutting-edge HIV/AIDS research to meet today?s needs.
HIV/AIDS and associated comorbidities and opportunistic infections remain ongoing public health problems in the United States and worldwide. Training the next generation of HIV/AIDS researchers and leaders with emphasis on new and emerging research priorities in HIV/AIDS is critical to effectively combat the disease and reduce its burden on public health.
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