Penn Center for AIDS Research

Ronald G. Collman, MD.
Director
 collmanr@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Dr. Ronald G. Collman earned his undergraduate and M.D. degrees from Boston University in 1981, following which he completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Collman came to Penn in 1986 as a fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and then as a postdoc in the Department of Microbiology. Dr. Collman joined the Penn faculty as Assistant Professor in 1990 and rose through the ranks to become Professor of Medicine and Medicine in Microbiology in 2004. Ron has been director of the Virus/ Molecular Core of the CFAR since its inception in 1998, served as co-director of the Penn CFAR from 2008-15, and assumed the role of CFAR Director in 2015.

Dr. Collman has an extensive background in HIV-related research in the areas of viral tropism, macrophage infection and viral entry, HIV/AIDS pulmonary complications and pathogenesis, microbiome studies, as well as neuroAIDS pathogenesis. Dr. Collman has been continuously funded through one or more NIH HIV/AIDS-related grants since 1989. He has served on various AIDS Study Sections for the NIH, private foundations and international governmental agencies. Dr. Collman serves on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the Journal of Virology. He is a clinical attending at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he specializes in Critical Care Medicine and attends in the Medical Intensive Care Unit.

Robert Gross, M.D.
Co-Director
 grossr@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Robert received his BA in Italian from Cornell University in 1986, his MD from Cornell University Medical College in 1991, and his MSCE from the University of Pennsylvania in 2000. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine and his fellowships in Infectious Diseases and Pharmacoepidemiology at Penn. He joined the faculty ranks as Assistant Professor in 1999, with a promotion to Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology (with tenure) in 2009, and was promoted to his current position of Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology in 2020.

Dr. Gross has been an active member of the Penn CFAR community since its inception, and served as its first Clinical Core Co-Director. He has been instrumental in the establishment and maintenance of the Clinical Core Database and Specimen Repository, a key HIV research resource on campus. Robert’s own research focuses on the continuum of care and prevention in HIV and hepatitis viruses in both the developed and developing worlds in both adults and adolescents. His work has addressed issues of measurement, determinants, and interventions to improve adherence and retention to treatment and prevention. Dr. Gross and his team developed the Managed Problem Solving HIV medication adherence intervention, which has been endorsed as an Evidence Based Intervention by the CDC. In addition to his ongoing research in Botswana, he is also training emerging researchers from there in HIV clinical research principles and practice funded by a training grant from the Fogarty International Center of NIH. Robert is a Senior Scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and a Senior Fellow in the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. He is the founding and current Chair of the Adherence Scientific Interest group of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology and is an Associate Editor of the society’s journal Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety. He has over 100 peer reviewed publications in journals such as JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, and AIDS. His work has been supported by NIH, AHRQ, and industry and he has served on several NIH study sections.

James A. Hoxie, M.D.
Previous (Founding) Director
 hoxie@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Dr. James A. Hoxie earned a B.A. in Biology from Wesleyan University in 1972 and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. He did an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital. Dr. Hoxie came to Penn in 1979 as a fellow in Hematology-Oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He rose through the ranks to become Professor of Medicine in 1997.

Dr. Hoxie has an extensive background in HIV-related research in the areas of virology and pathogenesis, and viral entry. His CV of over 170 publications lists over 100 publications dealing with HIV or AIDS. Dr. Hoxie has been PI of one or more NIH HIV/AIDS-related grants since 1986 and has served on several NIH AIDS Study Sections since 1985. He is an attending on the Oncology Unit at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he specializes in medical aspects of leukemia therapy and bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Hoxie is an Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Medicine and is on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Virology, Virology, and AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses.

Kate Gordon, MFA
Executive Director
 gordonk@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Kate received her BA in English Literature from Ursinus College and her MFA in Creative Writing & Literature from Temple University. She has been a member of the CFAR community since 2015, and has been involved with biomedical research and research administration since 1993. Since coming to Penn in 2004, Kate has been focused on the preparation and submission of biomedical research grants, initially as a grant writer and editor and then managing the Office of Research Program Development.

Mandi Bell
Program Manager
 bellama@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Mandi earned her BFA in Fashion Design from Moore College of Art & Design. She joined the CFAR community in 2020, and has worked in administrative support roles since 2009.