Core Structure

PMHARC’s 6 Cores function in an integrative fashion to promote Center cohesiveness and build the capacity to conduct collaborative research.

Administrative Core

The Administrative Core guides PMHARC’s activities and administrative processes, establishes guidelines for Core conduct and interactions, ensures that Cores implement PMHARC’s Specific Aims, goals, and short- and long-term objectives, and promotes effective inter-Core collaborations. The Administrative Core works collaboratively with the Community Advisory Board (CAB). Click here for a link to the CAB.
 

Directors: Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, PhD and David S. Metzger, PhD
Consultants: Tami D. Benton, MD, Kathleen A. Brady, MD, and Luis J. Montaner, DVM, DPhil         

Developmental Core 

The Developmental Core trains and mentors: new investigators entering the mental illness and HIV/AIDS fields; established investigators continuing ongoing work in these areas; and established investigators bridging to a new focus on comorbid illness. It will select 4-6 pilot projects each year to stimulate and support biological and behavioral studies of innovative, integrated treatments for comorbid mental illness/AIDS. 

Director: Lily Brown, PhD
Consultants: Mario Cristancho, MD

Clinical Assessment Core 

The Clinical Assessment Core assists investigators in recruiting patients for clinical studies, provides trained diagnosticians/evaluators to conduct clinical assessments in Center studies, and oversees administration of a core battery of behavioral measures.  

Director: Mary Beth Connolly Gibbons, PhD
Co-Directors: J.Cobb Scott, PhD and Robert Gross, MD, MSCE
Co-Investigators: Dennis L. Kolson, MD, PhD and Paul Crits-Christoph, PhD
Consultant: Pablo Tebas, MD
Click here for Clinical Assessment Core page 

Community Engagement Core

The Community Engagement Core links with community partners and   trains investigators and research staff to implement a broad range of interventions - contemporary pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and combined pharmaco-psychotherapy - for treatment of mental illness and HIV/AIDS and their comorbidities; consults on the design of HIV intervention projects; facilitates dissemination of evidence-based interventions for the treatment of mental illness and HIV/AIDS; and studies the comparative effectiveness and cost effectiveness of treatments in community settings, increasing the likelihood that they will be applied in "real-world" environments. 

Director: J. Deanna Wilson, MD, MPH
Co-Directors: John B. Jemmott III, PhD, Michael Blank, PhD, and Michael Thase, MD
Co-Investigator: Nadia Dowshen, MD

Laboratory and Biobehavioral Marker Core 

The Laboratory and Biobehavioral Marker Core  performs measurements and assays for all pilots and other studies focused on treatments of comorbid mental illness and HIV/AIDS, including immunology/virology/metabolic markers; pharmacokinetics and quantitative pharmacology; and neurocognitive and neuroimaging characterization. Core E also performs assessments that will define mental illnesses, HIV/AIDS, and the comorbid characteristics common to both. It additionally maintains a specimen repository, which includes plasma, serum, cells, and genomic DNA.  

Director: Cagla Akay-Espinoza, MD
Co-Directors: Ruben Gur, PhD                                                                                                                                                                                           

Biostatistics and Data Management Core 

The Biostatistics and Data Management Core applies rigorous statistical and analytic methodologies and effective data management in working with all Cores, pilot research project investigators, and other Penn/CHOP researchers wishing to continue or initiate new studies in comorbid mental illness/AIDS.  

Director: Knashawn Morales, ScD
Co-Director: Ian Barnett, PhD
Co-Investigator: Frances K. Barg, PhD
Click her for Biostatistics and Data Management Core page