June 2000: Grants Expand Research Focus and Renew Scholars Program

In late June, the American Foundation for AIDS Research announced new basic research grant awards totaling $3.21 million—making this amfAR’s largest single grant cycle in basic research since 1993. In addition to continuing its support for studies in AIDS vaccines and immune reconstitution, the Foundation has renewed funding for broad-based studies in other areas of HIV/AIDS research and reinstated a Scholars Program. Created to attract new talent and fresh ideas to the field of AIDS research, particularly in the areas of vaccines and immune restoration, the Scholars Program enables promising young investigators to conduct original research under the guidance of experienced AIDS scientists.

The Foundation has awarded 27 basic research grants totaling $1,938,711 and 13 scholar awards totaling $1,275,498—funding 40 out of 69 proposals submitted. As always, the selection of grantees was based on rigorous peer review by amfAR’s distinguished Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), a team of nationally and internationally renowned physicians and scientists who volunteer their time and expertise to evaluate proposals based on their scientific merit, promise, and relevance.

Basic research grants of approximately $72,000 each are going to:

• Ghalib Alkhatib, Ph.D., Indiana University
• Edward Barker, Ph.D., SUNY Upstate Medical University
• Kelly Stefano Cole, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
• Daniel Cesar Douek, M.R.C.P., Ph.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
• Ursula Esser, Ph.D., University of California at Davis
• Keith Raymond Fowke, Ph.D., University of Manitoba
• Edward J. Goetzl, M.D., University of California, San Francisco
• Samuel C. Kayman, Ph.D., Public Health Research Institute
• Hengming Ke, Ph.D., University of North Carolina
• Richard S. Kornbluth, M.D., Ph.D., Veterans Medical Research Foundation of San Diego
• Moshe Kotler, Ph.D., Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Alan L. Landay, Ph.D., Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center
• Makund J. Modak, Ph.D., New Jersey Medical School
• Dennis C. Mynarcik, Ph.D., SUNY at Stony Brook
• Mario Ostrowski, M.D., University of Toronto
• William A. Paxton, Ph.D., University of Amsterdam
• Melissa Pope, Ph.D., The Rockefeller University
• Lee Ratner, M.D., Ph.D., Washington University
• Polly Roy, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham
• Kunal Saha, M.D., Children’s Research Institute
• Celia A. Schiffer, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Barbara L. Shacklett, Ph.D., Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center
• Matthias J. Schnell, Ph.D., Thomas Jefferson University
• Malgorzata Simm, Ph.D., St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital
• James E. Talmadge, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Richard T. Wyatt, Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Jie Lin Zhang, M.D., Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

A number of grantees will explore new avenues for stimulating immune system functions to block HIV infection, including the use of dendritic cells that “present” the virus to immune cells and protein molecules that act as chemical messengers, known as cytokines. Others are examining the effect of stage of HIV disease on T-cell production, and attempting to isolate proteins on HIV’s surface that identify and bind to antibodies that can inactivate or neutralize the virus most effectively.

Several grantees will be exploring possible new targets for anti-HIV drugs, including the capsid p24 protein that forms the inner core of HIV and the Vif protein that is essential to the growth of the virus. Another funded proposal seeks to identify the genetic changes associated with HIV drug resistance in the viral protease and reverse transcriptase enzymes. One research team will be studying a group of commercial sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, to learn what has enabled them to resist HIV infection despite repeated unprotected intercourse with HIV-positive men. Another will study the mechanism by which protease inhibitors, and perhaps HIV itself, disrupt normal fat metabolism and may contribute to heart disease in some patients on long-term antiretroviral therapy.

The new amfAR Scholars are:

• Timothy M. Alce, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
• Pavel Bostik, M.D., Emory University
• Bing Chen, Ph.D., Harvard University Children’s Hospital
• Cynthia A. Derdeyn, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham
• J. Mohamad Fakruddin, Ph.D., Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• Mrinalini Kala, Ph.D., Scripps Research Institute
• Marcus Kaul, Ph.D., The Burnham Institute
• Susanne Marschner, Ph.D., National Jewish Medical and Research Center
• Eric D. Miller, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Christian Peters, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
• Nadeem Sheikh, Ph.D., University of Washington
• Angelique B. van’t Wout, Ph.D., University of Washington
• Yong-de Zhu, Ph.D., Seattle Biomedical Research Institute

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Among the investigations these scholars will conduct are developing a highly specific small peptide to inhibit the HIV-induced cell signaling required for HIV replication; using a genetically modified bacterium that produces and releases viral protein(s) to stimulate an immune response at the mucosal sites where HIV infection typically occurs; exploring therapeutic targets for drugs to prevent AIDS dementia; studying how HIV’s binding to T cells generates an inhibitory signal that can inactivate CD4 helper T cells; using x-ray crystallography to provide a three-dimensional image at the atomic level of HIV’s surface proteins in order to better target HIV drugs; examining changes in cellular genes in response to infection with different strains of HIV-1; and assessing the role of a newly discovered immune hormone in HIV disease progression and associated bone mineral loss. Several amfAR scholars will focus their attention on the specialized immune system cells known as dendritic cells, testing both their ability to serve as a delivery system for an AIDS vaccine and to elicit stronger antibody responses to HIV’s surface proteins.