HIV Researchers Awarded $9.1 million NIH Grant

HIV researchers at BUSM and BMC have been awarded $9.1 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund new and continuing initiatives at the Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), a  collaboration between Boston University, Boston Medical Center, Brown University and the Lifespan health system in Rhode Island.

The five-year grant supports a new relationship between two prominent universities: Brown University and Boston University, along with their affiliated medical centers, Lifespan and Boston Medical Center. The relationship significantly enhances the substantial resources and expertise of the Providence/Boston CFAR.

As public health officials are seeking to curb the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic, this grant reflects a timely new emphasis on the relationship between HIV and substance use disorder—an area which researchers at both institutions have already been studying for years. BU and Brown both operate NIH-funded alcohol and HIV research centers.

Karen Antman, MD, BUMC Provost and BUSM Dean, said, “We are looking forward to substantial progress in HIV research with this important new NIH-funded regional collaboration.”

The Providence/Boston CFAR is one of 19 sites of the national CFAR program, which brings together various realms of expertise from across the NIH to facilitate basic science, translational and public health research on HIV/AIDS. Based at Miriam Hospital in Providence, the site has secured continuous NIH funding since its founding 20 years ago in 1998. The new funding is an acknowledgement that HIV/AIDS continues to pose a serious threat around the world and that the center produces valuable multidisciplinary research to help battle the disease.

Currently, Providence/Boston CFAR investigators have secured more than $30 million in NIH-funded research in addition to $18.6 million from non-NIH sources, and $3.8 million in institutional support from the collaborating institutions for the next five-year cycle. The center provides services to over 250 faculty members from participating sites including international collaborators and those in Providence and Boston.

“This is very exciting,” said Susan Cu-Uvin, MD, director of the Providence/Boston CFAR and an HIV physician and a faculty member at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School and School of Public Health.  “CFAR is devoted to translational research. Its primary goal is to improve the lives of people with HIV/AIDS …. It’s not a science grant. It’s a service grant to support investigators to become researchers in the HIV/AIDS field. If you’re tied to a clinic, there’s no way you can do research. The grant allows us to attract young people who are promising investigators. We have the resources and mentorship they need.”

Dr. Cu-Uvin praised Boston University and Boston Medical Center for their participation and said the Boston institutions bring invaluable expertise and resources to CFAR. The collaboration could potentially leverage even greater funding from NIH in future grant cycles, she said.

Along with the new emphasis on substance use disorders, the Providence/Boston CFAR maintains a special focus on women, MSM (men who have sex with men), at-risk youth and individuals in the criminal justice system. Its research is aimed at preventing and treating the disease here in the United States and in highly pandemic regions around the world including, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Central Europe.

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH, the Robert A. Knox Professor and dean of BUSPH, said, “I am delighted to partner with Brown in this award. This is consistent with our strategic direction as a school, and I am much looking forward to seeing how this award will create more opportunities for science and scholarship by our faculty, bridging the two schools.”

“Collaboration is the hallmark of HIV research and education, and this support reinforces the successful partnerships between our institutions,” said Bess Marcus, dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University. “Because of the expertise of researchers in biology, medicine and public health, HIV has gone from a deadly infectious disease to a chronic illness that affords those afflicted with the chance to live a longer life. Continued work alongside our talented partners will lead to further advances in testing and treatment, and most importantly, improvements in the outcomes for people living with HIV/AIDS.”

Submitted by Ben Bovell-Ammon, MD, MPH