The CFAR Developmental Core provides resources and services to CFAR members to enhance career development in basic, clinical, or social and behavioral sciences. Resources and services provided by the Developmental Core include funding for small grants to assist CFAR members in the generation of preliminary data to support grant proposals submitted to external funding agencies. The CFAR Developmental Core Pilot Awards support scientific studies for 1 year.
This year, the Duke CFAR awarded two Standard grant awards of $100,000 and two Focused grant awards of $60,000. Congratulations to the grant recipients!
Julian Hertz, MD, MSc - Cardiovascular Risk Among Tanzanian Adults with HIV (Standard)
People with HIV (PWH) have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but cardiovascular preventative care is not currently part of routine HIV care in sub-Saharan Africa. This study will explore the current landscape of cardiovascular preventative care among PWH in Tanzania and determine the barriers to cardiovascular risk management in this population. The results of this study will inform future efforts to improve cardiovascular preventative care among PWH in resource-limited settings.
Jackie Hodges, MD, MPH - Integrating PrEP into mobile addiction and primary care services (Standard)
This study will contribute to prevention of future HIV infections among a population at elevated risk due to injection or sexual behavior. We will provide PrEP for HIV prevention in a low-barrier community setting – a mobile medical unit co-located with a syringe services program. Evidence generated by the study will inform the implementation of similar efforts in the future, in addition to providing preliminary evidence for future research into the acceptability and feasibility of this approach to increasing PrEP uptake and retention.
Asiya Gusa, PhD – Developing a reporter system to study stress-activation of retroelements during HIV/Cryptococcus co-infection of macrophages (Focused)
The pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans is a leading cause of infectious morbidity and mortality for individuals co-infected with HIV-1, accounting for up to 20% of AIDS-related deaths. Despite this association, few studies have examined interactions and signaling between the fungus and the virus, even though they infect the same host immune defense cells during infection. By developing a cellular model to study HIV and Cryptococcus co-infection, we can begin to investigate how these interactions impact disease progression and patient outcomes in order to design better therapeutic interventions.
Philippe Rascle, PhD - Multi-omic analysis of MHC-E-dependent SIV-specific memory NK cells in SIV infected rhesus macaques to develop new HIV cure strategy (Focused)
The NK cell is considered a significant candidate as a key role player in the development of an HIV cure. A rare subset of NK cells, known as antigen-specific memory NK cells, exhibit strong antiviral activity in HIV/SIV infection. Given that the SIV-infected non-human primate (NHP) model closely resembles the pathophysiology of HIV-infected humans, the in vitro expansion of single-NK cell clones from NHP provides an efficient methodology to develop and study antigen-specific NK cell populations. This contributes significantly to progress and establishes a strong foundation for the development of new clinical trials, such as cell therapy, vaccine design, and other NK-cell-based immunotherapies.