From the Director Print E-mail
Saag2008CFAR Director Michael S. Saag, MD
A lot has been happening at the UAB CFAR this Fall.In September, the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) at the White House held a summit at the Alys Stephens Center to discuss the research agenda associated with the US National AIDS Strategy.  Jeff Crowley, the Head of ONAP, hosted the meeting along with leaders from the UAB CFAR, including Dr. Michael Mugavero and me.  Several guests from out of town participated in a panel discussion, including Dr. Deborah Parham-Hopson,  Director of the HIV/AIDS Bureau at HRSA, along with several other dignitaries discussed the challenges of implementing the Strategy, including barriers to testing, linkage to care, and retention in care.  Crowley and Hopson both commented on the vast expertise at the UAB CFAR in these areas of research, including outreach, stigma reduction, and implementation science.  The UAB CFAR is already planning follow up to the summit with a series of research proposals and projects.

The UAB CFAR released an RFA for the Developmental Core to support ‘Interdisciplinary Research Groups’ designed to evaluate emerging areas of importance in the National AIDS Strategy and areas related to vaccine development, complications of therapy, and identification of a ‘cure’.  These IRGs will be funded in 2 phases:  One to establish the scope of the project, using an outside consultant / advisor as needed and a second phase to generate some pilot data for later submission to outside funding sources.  The IRG approach is the primary focus of this year’s developmental grant awards.  
Speaking of pilot funding, UAB, along with the University of Washington, are once again serving as the administrators of an Office of AIDS Research (OAR) funded initiative, Creative and Novel Ideas in HIV Research (CNIHR).  The CNIHR will fund 10 – 12 investigators from around the world who have training and expertise in an area other than HIV and fund them to direct their talents towards emerging issues in HIV research.  Eligible applicants cannot have worked on HIV-related projects in the past.  The current RFA just closed but more information on the CNIHR program and future funding initatives can be accessed via the website at www.cnihr.org. Finally, the UAB CFAR is very grateful to Drs. Watts and Marchase who recently made a trip to Zambia to meet with our ID faculty there.  They brought a message of continued, unwavering support to our faculty on the ground in Lusaka, with a special focus on establishing linkages to the newly established Howard Hughes Medical Institute program at the Kwazulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV ( K-RITH).  Dr. Adrie Steyn, a member of the UAB Department of Microbiology, is a newly appointed member of the HHMI-KRITH faculty where he will provide vital linkages between UAB and this newly established research unit.  Dr. Steyn will maintain his UAB affiliation while living and working at K-RITH in Durban, South Africa and will maintain his research lab here as well.  All of these efforts are in keeping with the recently re-vamped School of Medicines Strategic Plan.

On a personal note, please join me in welcoming Drs. Fran Lund and Troy Randall, newly appointed faculty members at UAB.  Dr. Lund will be our new Chair of Microbiology and Dr. Randall will be a new senior faculty member in the Department of Medicine.  We look forward to working with Fran as we continue to build the Basic Science component of our CFAR over the next decade.