CFAR News & Announcements - UNC Center for AIDS Research

UNC CFAR’s Biostatistics Core director Dr. Michael Hudgens honored with the 2023 Larsh Award

May 26, 2023

Michael Hudgens, PhD, is the winner of the 2023 Larsh Award. Established in 1997, the John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship recognizes a current member of the Gillings School faculty who best exemplifies the qualities of mentoring and commitment to students that Dr. Larsh embodied and valued so highly. Larsh was a health behavior faculty member from 1942 to 1981. The $4,500 prize may be used in any way that enhances the faculty member’s ability to mentor and support students. UNC CFAR’s Biostatistics Core Director, Michael, received the 2023 Larsh Award. He has experience in collaborative research and statistical methodology development related to studies of infectious diseases Learn more about what students had to say about Dr. Hudgens “His advising style is fine-tuned and key to his student’s successes and positive outcomes,” wrote one nominator. “He sets high, yet reasonable standards for his students and then gives them the tools

Dennis Research Group Releases New White Paper On Molecular HIV Epidemiology

May 26, 2023

The Dennis Research Group in the School of Medicine has released a new white paper titled, “Revitalizing Community Engagement in the Public Health Use of Molecular HIV Epidemiology.” The paper is a product of the UNC Ethics of HIV Molecular Surveillance Project, funded through an administrative supplement to the NIAID-funded R01 Phylodynamics Response, Monitoring, & Prevention of Transmission (HIV PROMPT; PI Ann Dennis, R01Al135970). The research team engaged with diverse stakeholders in North Carolina, including community members living with HIV, health care providers, public health leaders and professionals, community advocates, and bioethicists, through a multi-phase engagement process. The white paper was prepared by the PROMPT Bioethics Study Team, which includes Dennis, Suzanne Day, PhD, MA; Stuart Rennie, PhD; and Kristen Sullivan, PhD. Read more

CDC-UNC Collaboration Yields Potential Long-term HIV Protection

February 23, 2023

Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, MSc, associate professor of Biomedical Engineering, led a successful effort to create an injectable implant that can release effective HIV PrEP medications into the body for six months in non-human primates. For people at high risk of contracting HIV, missing doses of their daily HIV prevention pills can have big consequences. In some cases, missing a pill can lead to lack of protection against the virus. Since 2017, the lab of Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, MSc, associate professor in the UNC/NCSU Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been working with a research team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consisting of J. Gerardo García-Lerma, MSc, PhD, Ivana Massud, PhD, and Charles Dobard, PhD and others at UNC, to develop an injectable implant that can release HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications into the body for a long period of time. Their latest research, published in Nature

Alumni Gift Will Fund New Clinic in Malawi, Enhancing Research and Care for Reproductive Health and Sexually Transmitted Infections

February 23, 2023

February 22, 2023 A generous gift from Hyman and Marietta Bielsky will fund a new clinic in Malawi for reproductive health and sexually transmitted infections. The new clinic will replace a 50-year-old infrastructure for sexually transmitted disease research and care, the place where UNC’s global health work began. Long-lived friendships are special connections with those who knew you back when. But even more special is the rare friendship that extends beyond college and adulthood, and even rarer leaves a trail of good that can impact generations to come. When Professor Irving Hoffman, PA, MPH, Director of International Operations for the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases (IGHID), and International Director of UNC Project Malawi, called up his long-time friend Hyman Bielsky (‘76) in Sunny Isles, Florida, he wanted to talk about fundraising for a new reproductive health clinic in Malawi. He hoped he might tap into Hyman’s business expertise to get ideas about fundraising. He

Dr. Jeff Stringer Awarded Third Grant from Gates’ Foundation

July 28, 2022

In 2018, Jeff received the first Fetal Age Machine Learning Initiative (FAMLI) grant, a feasibility investment concerned primarily with automated estimation of gestational age. It focused upon generation of specific ultrasound datasets to train machine learning models and on scoping additional functions and features of an AI-enabled ultrasound system. In 2019, a second FAMLI grant extended the investment in data collection, expanded the resources available for machine learning, and introduced new partnerships with companies developing low-cost, handheld ultrasound solutions. As a result of this work, UNC developed a successful blind sweep gestational age estimation model that outperforms expert sonographers and has just launched a field validation of this gestational age tool in Chapel Hill and in Zambia. The new FAMLI 3 award provides $17 million over 4 years for UNC to significantly expand this work. The primary goal of this award is the development and validation of one or more multi-functional, AI-enabled, automated, low-cost ultrasound devices,

UNC School of Medicine Names 2021-22 Yang Family Biomedical Scholars

July 11, 2022

This story was originally posted on July 5, 2022 on the UNC School Of Medicine Newsroom website, which is linked HERE. Mauro Calabrese, PhD, Nilu Goonetilleke, PhD, and Adam Hantman, PhD, were selected as Yang Family Biomedical Scholars in the sixth installment of this annual School of Medicine award. The UNC School of Medicine has named three outstanding researchers as recipients of the sixth annual Yang Family Biomedical Scholars Award. They are: Mauro Calabrese, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology, Nilu Goonetilleke, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology, and Adam Hantman, PhD, associate professor of cell biology and physiology. Calabrese is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Goonetilleke is a member of the UNC HIV Cure Center, and Hantman is a member of the UNC Neuroscience Center. Each faculty member will receive a generous grant to be used at their discretion for biomedical research projects at the

Dr. Adaora Adimora On How HIV Impacts Women and Minorities

April 7, 2022

For National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, AIDSVu spoke with Dr. Adaora Adimora about increasing the rate of PrEP use among women and minorities impacted by HIV. Adaora Adimora, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Epidemiology at the UNC School of Medicine and Co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research. Q: Your career has largely focused on the epidemiology of STDs and HIV in women and minorities. What drove you towards this specific line of research? A: For a long time, we have observed marked differences in the rate of STIs between Blacks and whites. Soon after HIV came on the scene, differences between Blacks and whites were observed with HIV as well. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, there was an emphasis on “risk behavior” and “risk groups”. An underlying implication was that Black people in general had “higher risk” sexual behavior than whites. As a Black

Chi Named Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Vice Chair for Research and Innovation

March 11, 2022

This story was originally published March 8, 2022 here. Benjamin Chi, MD, is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been named Vice Chair for Research and Innovation in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. For nearly two decades, he has worked at the intersection of HIV, maternal and child health, and global health. Benjamin Chi, MD, is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been named Vice Chair for Research and Innovation in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. For nearly two decades, he has worked at the intersection of HIV, maternal and child health, and global health. He began his academic career in Zambia during a time of transformative change in HIV and women’s health care. Over this period, he