BU Clinical HIV/AIDS Research Training Program (BU-CHART

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Boston University Clinical HIV/AIDS Research Training (BU-CHART) program prepares outstanding M.D and Ph.D. trainees for careers as scientific leaders in HIV/AIDS research, with a focus on research in disadvantaged and underserved populations. BU-CHART focuses its training plan on four high-priority HIV research fields that address the substantial challenges that remain to ending the HIV epidemic: 1) substance use and HIV - a syndemic of substance use disorders and HIV infection fuels HIV outbreaks in the U.S., Eastern Europe, and Asia. 2) Tuberculosis and HCV co-infection - comorbidities, including Tuberculosis and Hepatitis C Virus are leading causes of death among HIV-infected people; 3) HIV transmission and establishment of latency - HIV incidence remains stubbornly elevated, and early establishment of HIV latency remains a frustrating puzzle that limits progress to finding HIV cure; 4) HIV treatment and the accelerated aging process - we still seek safe and effective interventions to reduce the inappropriate immune activation that accompanies HIV infection and leads to end-organ disease. The training facilities include state-of-the-art research space at Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and Boston Medical Center, the largest Safety-net hospital in New England. BU-CHART synergizes with existing training programs on campus, including the BU Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), the Providence-Boston Center for AIDS Research, and other T32- and R25-funded training programs on the BUMC campus. We pair our outstanding trainees with BU-CHART faculty mentors who are established investigators with NIH-funded research projects and experience mentoring. We provide a thoughtfully constructed training plan in scientific reasoning and experimental design, professional development, and the ethical conduct of human research. The result is a track record of training success. In the past 15 years, BU-CHART trained 26 MD and PhD post-doctoral fellows, of whom 20 (77%) remain in in academic positions focused on HIV research. Among the 7 trainees who completed the program in the current grant cycle, 6 now have academic research positions, 3 have already obtained career development awards, and 2 have career development awards currently under review.