Welcome to the Penn Center for AIDS Research
The Penn Center for AIDS Research (Penn CFAR) is one of 20 NIH-funded CFARs and includes HIV and AIDS investigators at the University of Pennsylvania, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and the Wistar Institute.
The Penn CFAR's mission is to support, encourage and facilitate research in all areas of HIV/AIDS on the Penn/CHOP/Wistar campus by (a) facilitating communication and interdisciplinary collaborations through workshops, working groups, strategic planning efforts, and a seminar series covering all topics in the field; (b) support innovative pilot research in HIV/AIDS through developmental pilot grant programs including nonhuman primate-based research; (c) mentoring and support of junior investigators; (d) services and training in support of HIV research through Shared Cores: Clinical, Viral/Molecular, Immunology, Biostatistics & Data Management; Behavioral and Social Sciences; International; Nonhuman Primate.
Announcements
Please join us for a screening of the documentary 5B, co-sponsored with the Penn School of Nursing
Film Screening: 5B
TIME:
6:00pm - 8:00pm EST
LOCATION:
418 Curie Blvd Philadelphia, PA 19104
5B is the inspirational story of everyday heroes who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect and care for the patients of the first HIV/AIDS ward unit in the United States at San Francisco General Hospital. 5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of the nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B in 1983, their patients, loved ones, and staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being during a time of great uncertainty. The result is an uplifting yet candid and bittersweet monument to a pivotal moment in American history and a celebration of quiet heroes’ worthy of renewed recognition.
The documentary will support (RED)’s fight to end AIDS, with a portion of 5B’s net proceeds going to support the work of the Global Fund – the recipient of all (RED) monies. Additionally, the release will bring awareness to the HIV/AIDS issue ahead of the sixth Global Fund Replenishment this coming October.
“5B is an important documentary that shines a light on the extraordinary nurses, caregivers and family members that built Ward 5B, and uses their powerful story to generate money for the Global Fund to help finance HIV/AIDS programs today,” said Jennifer Lotito, Chief Operating Officer at (RED).
Schedule:
5 pm – 6 pm – light refreshments & networking
6 pm – 7:30 – Film Screening
7:30 pm – 8 pm – Panel/Q&A
NEW CFAR Microgrant Program
The Penn Center for AIDS Research is happy to announce a new funding mechanism available to junior faculty CFAR investigators (Instructor and Assistant Professor or equivalent) to obtain targeted data needed for resubmission of a scored grant, or other critical needs that will result in a stronger HIV research grant or related goals. This should be limited to key essential resources for which no other support is available. These grants will be implemented in FY2019, and will be subject to rigorous evaluation and review by the Developmental and Administrative Cores.
Please see the Microgrant Program page for more details.
News
- Bauermeister Selected for Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship.
7/15/2019
Twenty one senior health care leaders were chosen to join the Aspen Institute Health Innovators Fellowship’s fifth class and the program’s network of health care entrepreneurs and innovators from across the United States. These leaders – including Penn Nursing’s José Bauermeister, PhD, Presidential Professor, and Director of the Penn Program on Sexuality, Technology & Action Research (PSTAR) – will embark on a two-year Fellowship that will strengthen their leadership and challenge them to develop new approaches to improve the health and wellbeing of Americans. Full article HERE
José Bauermeister, Presidential Professor of Nursing and Director of the CFAR Technologies to Reduce HIV Disparities Scientific Working Group, has developed an online tool designed to decrease sexual risk-taking and promote HIV/STI prevention behaviors among young gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (YGBMSM), many of whom frequently meet their partners online.
Dr. Drew Weissman, who has developed nucleoside-modified mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) as a novel platform for vaccines, showed that the vaccine and LNPs specifically induce high levels of T follicular helper cells (Tfh). Tfh cells form germinal centers (GC) and drive GC B cells to proliferate, somatically mutate, class switch, and form long-term memory, which are critical for HIV vaccine development. In addition to HIV, the vaccine platform has applications to many different viral, bacterial, and parasitic pathogens.
Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen and a multidisciplinary team from Wistar, Penn and several other institutions, found that CD32, previously implicated as a marker of the HIV latent reservoir, is actually expressed preferentially on a subset of activated CD4+ T cells enriched for transcriptionally active HIV. This has important implications for identifying and targeting HIV latency in infected people.
Events
- HIV Grand Rounds
Every Thursday
12:00- 1:00 pm, Class of '62 Auditorium, John Morgan Building (unless otherwise posted) - HIV / Pathogenesis CURE Journal Club
Every Other Thursday (starting again 9/20/18)
1:30- 3:00 pm, Room 501, Johnson Pavilion
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