Jeff Stringer, director of UNC CFAR’s International Core, is leading two studies to improve pregnancy outcomes in the world’s poorest countries. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $14 million to Stringer’s interdisciplinary team, composed of researchers from the UNC School of Medicine and UNC Gillings School of Global Health. Read more about this at the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.

Joseph Eron, MD, division chief of infectious diseases and director of UNC CFAR’s Clinical Core, was recently featured on Contagion‘s latest Peer Exchange panel. The four-part discussion, entitled “HIV Screening, Prevention, and Treatment Advances,” is available to the public here. From the UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine’s Newsroom article,  “This Contagion “Peer Exchange” panel features five distinguished experts: Joseph J. Eron Jr., MD, professor of medicine and division chief of infectious diseases at the UNC School of Medicine, as moderator; Eric S. Daar, MD, of the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; Ian D. Frank, MD, of the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania; W. David Hardy, MD, of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Paul E. Sax, MD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The first segment of this “Peer Exchange” series delves into a discussion on screening and prevention of HIV. In the second segment, the experts

In a study published on January 11th, investigators considered of the digital resilience behavior of young, black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM). CFAR investigator and assistant professor of health behavior at the Gillings School Kathryn E. Muessig, PhD, participated as senior author to this study, entitled “Stay strong! keep ya head up! move on! it gets better!!!!’: Resilience processes in the healthMpowerment online intervention of young black gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men.” The study focused on participants’ forum use of healthMpowerment, an anonymous online intervention system designed by Hightow-Weidman. Investigators analyzed conversations according to the four forms of resilience behaviors: exchanging social support, engaging in health-promoting cognitive processes, enacting healthy behavioral practices and empowering others. Their findings suggest that interventions based on resilience and empowerment may position black GBMSM to better combat negative stereotypes and social institutions that perpetuate HIV-related stigma, racism and blame. This is in

For our January 2019 webinar, Brian Mustanski, PhD, presented “Don’t assume if you build it they will come: Two hybrid effectiveness-implementation trials of eHealth HIV prevention programs for diverse adolescent and young adult MSM.” In case you missed it, a recording can be viewed here. Next month’s webinar is planned for February 25th at 3:30 ET and will feature Robin Lanzi and Pam Foster from UAB CFAR discussing the Inter-CFAR Faith Initiative Working Group. The 2019 webinar schedule and registration information can be found here. Brian Mustanksi, PhD, is director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern University, Co-Director of the Center for Prevention Implementation Methodology for Drug Abuse and HIV, and Co-Director of the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research. Additionally, he is a professor of both Medical Social Sciences and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Mustanski’s research focuses