The Last Gift study aims to understand where and how HIV hides in the human body when a person with HIV is taking HIV medications. The Last Gift study tackles these aims by studying people with HIV who are terminally ill from a disease other than HIV, like cancer, ALS, or heart disease. The study follows these volunteers with regular blood draws before the person dies and then examines multiple tissues throughout their bodies after death. From these samples, investigators hope to understand...

Dr. Paul Volberding, professor of medicine at UCSF, was perhaps the leading clinician in the United States in the early days of the HIV epidemic. As a young oncologist finishing his training in the early 1980's, Volberding recalls seeing a young gay man with a previously rare tumor: Kaposi's sarcoma. Little did he know that the underlying immunodeficiency that led to KS would come to define his career. Volberding went on to become the founding chief of the AIDS division at San Francisco...

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) is funding the largest demonstration project of its kind in the US, to determine the acceptability, utilization, adherence, and pharmacokinetics of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication among transgender persons to promote their health and protect their lives. As researchers, participants and healthcare providers explain here, the three CHRP-supported studies across the state use different techniques, such as providing PrEP and hormonal...

UCSF Professor Emeritus Dr. Mark Jacobson is interviewed by Dr. Susa Coffey about his novel "Sensing Light." The book focuses on the HIV/AIDS outbreak from the perspective of the medical professionals who found themselves on the front lines trying to treat this horrific new disease. From the first encounter through the decades of hard work that followed, medical science attempted to identify ways to contain and treat the illness. Series: "Mini Medical School for the Public" [Show ID: 32345]

Igor Grant, MD, FRCP(C) pursues research that addresses real world behavioral problems. Studying the intersection of drugs of abuse (primarily methamphetamine) and infection, his work sheds light on the basic mechanisms of injury for people with HIV. He examines inflammation in the context of neurological disorders and measures the impact of chronic stress on Alzheimer's disease caregivers. Dr. Grant joins William Mobley, MD, PhD to discuss his life in science and his fascinating work....

A profile of Diane Havlir, MD and her work in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, from co-founding the much admired Getting to Zero consortium in San Francisco to her Sustainable East African Research on Community Health (SEARCH) study in a fishing village in Kenya. Both efforts include the three pillars that are central to stopping the epidemic – preventing HIV infection with PrEP, testing and treating people immediately upon diagnosis of HIV, and retaining people in HIV care. [Public Affairs]...

Sir Richard Branson joins UC San Diego’s Steffanie Strathdee, Patricia Gonzalez-Zuniga, MD, and author Jon Cohen for a discussion on the costs of criminalizing drug use on marginalized communities in Tijuana and elsewhere. Series: "HIV/SIDA: The Epidemic in Tijuana" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 30862]

Epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee of UC San Diego shares stories of her global health team’s intervention efforts that have helped curb the spread of HIV and tuberculosis in Tijuana and other poor regions in the world. Series: "HIV/SIDA: The Epidemic in Tijuana" [Public Affairs] [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 30181]

HIV-related stigma and discrimination are alive and well. Despite civil rights laws and protections related to the disclosure of protected health information, people with HIV often worry about their status being disclosed and when that happens, it can cause serious harm. At the same time, exciting work is being done at UC San Diego and elsewhere to integrate HIV surveillance and clinical data to increase engagement in care. Jeffrey Crowley, a Distinguished Scholar and Program Director of the...

In the first of a four-part series, UC San Diego epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee and psychologist Tom Patterson start the story of how their research teams have traced the spread of HIV in Tijuana. It opens at a wound clinic in El Bordo, the section of the Tijuana River Canal where migrants and others shoot heroin and, in some cases, share needles. Dr. Patricia Gonzalez-Zuniga offers first aid as she and her staff recruit participants into Strathdee’s Proyecto El Cuete, a study which...

In the second of a four-part series based on “Tomorrow Is a Long Time: Tijuana’s Unchecked HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” Dr. Jose Luis Burgos guides medical students from UC San Diego and Universidad Autónoma de Baja California as they offer free health care at HFiT, the Health Frontiers in Tijuana clinic at Prevencasa. The segment also features an HIV telemedicine project that spares patients a long journey to CAPASITS, the government-run HIV/AIDS clinic across town, and the Tattoo Removal Clinic, a...

In the third of a four-part series, photographer Malcolm Linton and writer Jon Cohen tell the stories of Victor, Fernanda, Sergio, Susi, Nelly and others living with HIV who are featured in their photo essay book, “Tomorrow Is a Long Time: Tijuana’s Unchecked HIV/AIDS Epidemic.” Linton and Cohen spent two years interviewing and photographing transgender women, people who inject drugs, sex workers and men who have sex with men in Tijuana, documenting what happened to them over time. Series:...

In the final installment of the series based on “Tomorrow Is a Long Time: Tijuana’s Unchecked HIV/AIDS Epidemic,” writer Jon Cohen explores what it would take to end the AIDS epidemic in Tijuana by 2030, as called for by UNAIDS. Dr. Davey Smith of UC San Diego argues for aggressive, frequent HIV testing in high-risk groups and shows how cutting-edge genetic science can unravel how the virus moves through communities. Cohen explains the benefits of harm reduction strategies, such as providing...

The four-part HIV/SIDA series follows UC San Diego epidemiologist Steffanie Strathdee, psychologist Tom Patterson and their binational team of doctors, researchers, medical students and outreach workers as they document the spread of HIV in Tijuana. Starting at El Bordo in the Tijuana River Canal and moving to the clinics at Prevencasa, the Las Memorias AIDS hospice and then inside the Tijuana Police Academy, this series shows their efforts to treat and prevent HIV infection among high risk...

Staal Vinterbo, a professor in biomedical informatics at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, shows how privacy is routinely violated online and suggests new ways to guard sensitive personal information. He also presents an example of a state-of-the-art privacy protection technique and how it could be used to inform HIV prevention efforts in San Diego. Vinterbo is presented by the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Public Affairs] [Health and...

Although antiretroviral therapy has dramatically extended the life of HIV infected individuals, the life-long daily regimen of pills is not a cure. The drugs' side effects lead to various complications such as increased incidence of heart disease and cancer that significantly reduces lifespans. Based on this reality, the recent isolated reports of individuals being cured of HIV infection have brought a lot of excitement as well as cautiousness. Brief presentations by a distinguished lineup of...

On October 1st, 2013 CIRM, the AIDS Research Institute, and the Gladstone Institutes sponsored an informative, interactive Town Hall forum on HIV cure research in San Francisco's State Building. The event included a panel discussion by a distinguished lineup of scientists, clinicians, and advocate who provided the latest news in cure research from HIV conferences, the Martin Delaney AIDS Cure Research Collaborative, the biotech industry, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine...

John Zaia of City of Hope describe his CIRM Disease Team grant to bring a stem cell-based HIV treatment to clinical trials. Series: "California Institute for Regenerative Medicine" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 25754]

Dr. Susan Little of UC San Diego School of Medicine presents her research that tracks HIV infection by rapidly obtaining genetic information from those engaged in HIV healthcare. A discussion follows on privacy protections, the risks associated with the use of these data and their potential to significantly limit HIV transmission in communities. Dr. Little is presented by the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology in San Diego. Series: "Exploring Ethics" [Health and Medicine] [Science]...

Three global health experts - Gregg Alton JD, Executive Vice President, Gilead; Ambassador Eric Goosby MD: Global Health Science, UCSF; and Stefano Bertozzi MD PhD, Dean, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley - discuss the role and responsibilities of public and private organizations in the response to the global HIV and HCV epidemics. From policy advances to facilitate access to life saving antiretrovirals for millions of patients, to challenges in regulatory infrastructure, to the rocky...

Explore the current state of global HIV/AIDS. Panelists discuss what progress has been made in fighting this global epidemic, how research findings are being translated into improved clinical outcomes, and how the Bay Area research community is working to address the questions that remain. Panelists: Eran Bendavid, Assistant Professor, Medicine, Stanford; Stefano Bertozzi, Dean, School of Public Health, UC Berkeley; Diane Havlir, Professor and Chief of the HIV/AIDS Division & Positive...

A look at PrEP, a prevention strategy for people at high risk for contracting HIV. Researchers at the University of California explain how pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) works as they describe a four-year, multi-pronged study of men who have sex with men in Los Angeles and San Diego. Participants agree to take a Truvada pill daily to reduce their risk of getting infected by up to 99%. But will they follow through? Methods to increase adherence among the participants are also being tested,...

Peter Stock, MD, PhD discusses current treatments for transplant patients with HIV. Series: "UCSF Transplant Update" [Health and Medicine] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 27703]