CTSI Training Curriculum Program (formerly known as the K30 Program)

Do you want to become a successful patient-oriented investigator who can bridge molecular medicine and clinical research?  Do you hold a professional degree in Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, or other clinical discipline, or are a PhD scientist highly committed to clinical investigation?  Do you have an affiliation with UCLA, Harbor-UCLA, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, or Charles R. Drew University of Medicine & Science?

If you answered yes to all of the above questions, the CTSI Training Curriculum Program in Clinical and Translational Investigation can offer you educational opportunities for advanced training in clinical research.  These options vary from isolated clinical research development seminars ( Track 1) to a formally structured certificate program ( Track 2) and a Master of Science in Clinical Research ( Track 3).

Track 1 does not grant any certificate or degree.  The Clinical Research Development Seminars are open to interested fellows and faculty, and can be taken as individual entities.  No tuition required.  Applications are accepted all year!

Track 2  is a structured two-year part-time program that leads to a certificate awarded by the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  No tuition required.  Applications are now being accepted until May 15, 2012!

Track 3 is a Master of Science in Clinical Research (MSCR) graduate degree program offered by the Department of Biomathematics in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  The length of time to complete the MSCR degree, including the requirement of a research thesis, attracts those with career aspirations in academic medicine.  Tuition required.  Applications are now being accepted until May 15, 2012!

For more information, go to http://www.ctsi.ucla.edu/education/translationaltraining/ now!

 

Download Flyer HERE: [Download not found]

Low Income Health Program Stakeholder Advisory Committee News

 

Application deadline extended to Friday, April 20th

The California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS, at the request of HIV advocates and the California legislature, invites stakeholders to apply for membership in a Low Income Health Program (LIHP) Stakeholder Advisory Committee.

Click here for additional details.

Click here for application form and instructions.

Questions?  Please email any questions and completed applications to Daniel Coronado.

The “Basic Research on HIV Persistence” (R01) PA has been renewed and was published this morning. A Parallel FOA utilizing the R21 mechanism was also published under the same title:

(R01)  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-161.html

(R21) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-12-162.html

About HIV RSVP

HIV RSVP is a program matching interested individuals in Los Angeles County with HIV related research at UCLA. We want everyone in Los Angeles who is interested in clinical trials to be able to find one that fits their needs.

What is HIV RSVP?

RSVP stands for Research Study Volunteer Project. It is a UCLA program that matches volunteers with studies that may be of interest to them and that they might be eligible for. To do this, a volunteer must enroll in the RSVP program and once registered, RSVP can match the person with studies based on the answers they give in the registration process.

Joining RSVP does not automatically enter you into any research studies. Once you sign up for RSVP, you will be contacted by RSVP staff any time you might be eligible for a study. We will give you the contact information for that study and it will always be your choice to contact the research team or not to see if you are eligible or not through a more thorough screening.

CLICK HERE to learn more about RSVP.

UCLA was the site of the first reported cases of AIDS in June 1981, and currently has some of the most cutting-edge research on the planet including HIV gene therapy, metabolic disorder therapies, HIV-related cancers and vaccine research.

 

 

The UCLA HIV Research Study Volunteer Project (RSVP) is like a dating site for research study volunteers and investigators, finding their perfect matches.

 

RSVP is open to men, women, transgender men, and transgender women over the age of 18 who are HIV positive or HIV negative. Our studies range from focus groups and surveys to gene and stem cell therapies and everything in-between.

 

RSVP was just launched in March 2012 and we are looking for a logo design for our program. Ideally, the colors of the logo are blue and gold (go Bruins!!!) but can be shown in black and white if needed.  Help us find a great logo and the prize-winning entry receives a t-shirt with your design and a $100 Amazon gift card!

 

Designs should be submitted to Faith Landsman, Director of RSVP, by midnight, April 30, 2012. For more information go to http://www.hivrsvp.ucla.edu/public/pages/design.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is inviting innovators to apply for two grant opportunities:

1.        Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative to encourage innovative and unconventional global health and development solutions, is now accepting grant proposals for its latest application round. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for profit companies.

 

Proposals are being accepted online until May 15, 2012 on the following topics:

o         New Approaches for the Interrogation of Anti-malarial Compounds

o         Aid is Working. Tell the World

o         Design New Approaches to Optimize Immunization Systems

o         Explore New Solutions in Global Health Priority Areas

o         Protect Crop Plants from Biotic Stresses From Field to Market

Initial grants will be US $100,000 each, and projects showing promise will have the opportunity to receive additional funding of up to US $1 million. Full descriptions of the new topics and application instructions are available at: www.grandchallenges.org/explorations.

 

If you have questions regarding this grant opportunity, please email us at GCEHelp@gatesfoundation.org.

2.       The HIV Diagnostics team is now accepting Letters of Inquiry for the identification of novel biomarkers that can be used effectively to measure HIV incidence at the population level. We are looking for biomarkers that could be used alone or in combination, and that are at the initial development stage. Applicants can be at any experience level; in any discipline; and from any organization, including colleges and universities, government laboratories, research institutions, non-profit organizations and for profit companies.

 

 

Proposals are being accepted online until Friday, May 18, 2012 10:00 AM Pacific Standard Time. Individual grants will not exceed US $1 million. A full description of the new topic and application instructions are available at http://www.gatesfoundation.org/hivaids/Pages/loi-biomarkers-hiv-incidence-measurement.aspx .

 

If you have questions regarding this grant opportunity please email us at HIVDiagnostics@gatesfoundation.org.

 

We are looking forward to receiving innovative ideas from around the world and from all disciplines. If you have a great idea, please apply. If you know someone else who may have a great idea, please forward this message.

 

Thank you for your commitment to solving the world’s greatest health and development challenges.

 

 

Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Michael Carter as seen on AIDSmap.com

 

People with HIV reduce their overall risk of tuberculosis (TB) by starting antiretroviral therapy, an international team of investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Despite this, the risk of the disease increased in the first three months of HIV treatment, especially for older people and those with a low CD4 cell count. For severely immunosuppressed people, the risk of TB remained increased in the longer term.

“Physicians should be aware of the potentially increased risk of developing tuberculosis after cART [combination antiretroviral therapy] initiation,” comment the investigators.

The study was conducted because of uncertainty about the level of protection which starting HIV therapy provides against TB.

The immune restoration which accompanies the initiation of antiretroviral treatment should offer protection against the infection. However, it can also be associated with a short-term risk of what is called immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS). This could be because of the paradoxical worsening of previously treated TB, or the ‘unmasking’ of sub-clinical disease. The risk of IRIS is greatest during the first three months of HIV therapy.

Investigators from Europe and the US therefore designed a study involving approximately 65,000 people who received HIV care between 1996 and 2007. All these participants were antiretroviral naive at baseline. The overall risk of TB was compared between individuals who started HIV therapy and those who did not. The risk of the disease was also calculated according to the time since HIV therapy was started and also according to risk factors such as CD4 cell count and age.

During a median of 28 months of follow-up, a total of 712 patients were diagnosed with TB. This provided an overall incidence of three cases per 100 person-years.

Overall, starting HIV therapy was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk of TB (HR = 0.56; 95% CI, 0.44-0.72), leading the investigators to comment: “This study shows a reduction of 44% in tuberculosis incidence among HIV-positive individuals who start cART in high income countries.”

However, incidence of TB differed according to a number of HIV-related and demographic characteristics.

It was highest among people with a CD4 cell count below 50 cells/mm³ (8.4 cases per 100 person-years) and lowest for those with a CD4 cell count above 500 cells/mm³ (2.1 cases per 100 person-years). This difference is explained by the much higher numerical incidence of TB at lower CD4 cell counts.

Incidence also differed according to HIV risk group. It was lowest among gay and other men who have sex with men (one case per 100 person-years), and highest in people who originated from sub-Saharan Africa (7.7 cases per 100 person-years).This difference is explained by the population burden of latent TB infection and by higher infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa.

Incidence of the infection was lower in younger people compared to older people (under 35 = 2.4 cases per 100 person-years vs over 50 = 4.8 cases per 100 person-years), due in part to a lower duration of potential exposure to TB among younger people,

“Impaired immunological responses to M. tuberculosis in people starting cART at very low CD4 cell counts and those above 50 years of age warrant further investigation,” comment the investigators.

Despite the overall reduction in the risk of TB associated with HIV therapy, the investigators found that people starting treatment actually had an increased risk of the disease during the first three months of treatment compared to those who remained antiretroviral naive (HR = 1.36; 95% CI, 0.98-1.89).

HIV therapy lasting longer than three months was associated with a 56% reduction in the risk of TB (HR = 0.44; 95% CI, 0.34-0.58).

“The epidemiological pattern suggests that unmasking IRIS may be playing a role,” write the authors.

But even after three months of therapy, people with a CD4 cell count below 50 cells/mm³ were still more likely to develop TB than those who had not started antiretroviral treatment (HR = 1.02; 95% CI, 0.44-2.36).

“These patients remain in a state of relevant immunodeficiency in spite of cART for longer periods and are therefore at higher risk of reactivating latent tuberculosis beyond 3 months after starting cART,” suggest the investigators. “Further follow-up of these cohorts will show whether the risk of tuberculosis does eventually drop with longer exposure to cART.”

The role of IRIS in TB risk was further suggested by the overall reduction in the incidence and risk of PCP (Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia) that accompanied the initiation of antiretroviral treatment in both the short and long term.

The authors conclude: “For cART to be useful in tuberculosis control, prompt HIV infection testing is needed so cART can be started when clinically indicated rather than at advanced immunodeficiency. Diagnosis and treatment of M. tuberculosis infection, as national and international guidelines recommend, should be reinforced. Even in countries with low tuberculosis transmission, intensified case finding remains essential.”

 

Reference

HIV Vaccine Study Offers Up Possible Antibody Protection Clues

Scientists continued to unravel clues as to why a combination of two preventive HIV vaccines—ALVAC HIV and AIDSVAX B/E—may have worked for some but not others in a large scale clinical trial reported in 2009. A new paper (see below) published online ahead of print in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) suggests those who produced relatively high levels of a specific antibody after receiving the vaccinations in study RV 144 were less likely to become infected with HIV, compared with those who did not.

Click here to read the full AIDSmed.com article.

_______________________________________________________________

Immune-Correlates Analysis of an HIV-1 Vaccine Efficacy Trial

As seen in The New England Journal of Medicine 

BACKGROUND

In the RV144 trial, the estimated efficacy of a vaccine regimen against human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) was 31.2%. We performed a case–control analysis to identify antibody and cellular immune correlates of infection risk.

The Odyssey of Therapeutic

Vaccines for HIV

by Tim Horn at AIDSmeds.com

While gene therapies that render the immune system impervious to HIV and drugs that potentially purge the virus from resting CD4 cells continue to be watched closely by AIDS cure researchers and advocates, therapeutic vaccines may serve an important supporting role in these efforts, according to a commentarypublished by activist Richard Jefferys in the Spring 2012 TAGline newsletter.

“After a period in which enthusiasm regarding the prospects for therapeutic vaccines waned,” Jefferys writes, “the recent resurgence in interest in research aiming to cure HIV infection has offered new reasons to pursue their development.”

Notable therapeutic vaccines for the virus use HIV particles, sometimes paired with other viruses, or largely intact HIV, to jumpstart the immune system’s perceived ability to control viral replication in the body. Such vaccines have been conceptualized and explored since the mid-1980s. “But the first efforts toward this goal quickly mired therapeutic vaccine research in controversy,” Jefferys writes, “casting an initial pall across the field that was compounded by the failure of any candidate to show significant efficacy.”

Jefferys explains that therapeutic vaccines are now in their third—and potentially most critical—era of development, noting that the first two eras didn’t pan out for important reasons.

In the first era, dating back to the 1980s and early 1990s, therapeutic vaccine candidates of the day faced significant hurdles that were unknown at the time. For example, it was once assumed that HIV is mostly dormant during the asymptomatic and untreated years of infection and that CD4 cells lacked the ability to respond to HIV. Subesequent findings proving these hypotheses wrong, Jefferys writes, “seriously called into question the idea that adding more HIV antigens into the mix via therapeutic vaccination—when the virus itself was failing to induce protective immunity—would be beneficial.”

In the second era, with viral load technology and combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) widely available, therapeutic vaccination plans evolved. One approach was to bolster the immune response to HIV while study volunteers were keeping their viral loads undetectable using available ARVs, followed by treatment interruptions to test the immune system’s ability to control HIV replication in the absence of therapy.

 

Click here to read the full article at AIDSmed.com