Overview

The Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is a joint research effort between Tufts and Brown Universities and their affiliated hospitals and centers. The CFAR is part of a national program begun by the National Institutes of Health in 1988. There are currently 19 Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR) located at academic medical centers throughout the U.S.

The Lifespan/Tufts/Brown CFAR has brought together all senior AIDS investigators at the Tufts and Brown Universities and their affiliated hospitals in a user-friendly structure which has been successful in supporting on-going research among active AIDS investigators and in stimulating new AIDS research by young investigators and by others who had not previously been involved in this research area. Besides the extensive efforts in Southeastern New England, the leadership has expanded the scope of international studies through the training of international collaborators and collaborative research at international sites.

CFAR Core Services are available to support HIV/AIDS research to all Tufts University and Brown University faculty members who hold the rank of assistant professor or greater. The full range of research disciplines including behavioral science, basic science, clinical research, prevention science, and international research are supported by the CFAR.

The collaborating institutions include the Brown Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island and four affiliated hospitals, (The Miriam Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Women and Infant’s Hospital of Rhode Island and Roger Williams Medical Center), and the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, with its primary teaching hospital, the New England Medical Center (NEMC). The Miriam Hospital in Providence serves as the primary contracting institution for the project. All CFAR members are faculty members at either Brown Medical School or Tufts University.

Since one of the Core Directors in this CFAR, Dr. Kenneth Mayer, Professor of Medicine at Brown Medical School, has had a long-standing research relationship with the Fenway Community Health Center (FCHC) in Boston, this institution continues to serve as a unique collaborating site for a major project in the Prevention Science Core of this CFAR.

The merging of these institutions into the Lifespan/Tufts/Brown Center for AIDS Research has provided expertise of Tufts/New England Medical Center scientists in nutritional aspects of AIDS, outcomes research, and basic science on HIV-related pathogenesis, to the broad based clinical research and prevention science programs, primarily directed toward women and other hard to reach populations, at the Brown Academic Medical Center.

Charles C.J. Carpenter, MD, Professor of Medicine, Brown University, is the principal investigator of the CFAR, funded in 1998. All Brown University and Tufts University teaching hospitals are an integral part of the CFAR. The following items summarize the key functions of the CFAR.

• Providing scientific leadership and institutional infrastructure dedicated to HIV/AIDS research.

The Lifespan/Tufts/Brown CFAR has brought together all HIV/AIDS investigators at the Tufts and Brown Universities and their affiliated hospitals in a collegial structure which has been successful in supporting and increasing the breadth and depth of research among established investigators, and in stimulating new HIV/AIDS initiatives both by young investigators and by established basic and clinical biomedical and biobehavioral scientists not previously involved in this area. The CFAR has been increasingly effective in stimulating relevant cross-disciplinary research efforts. In addition to expansion of HIV/AIDS related research in Southeastern New England, the leadership has greatly increased international research efforts, both through the training of international investigators and by developing new collaborative peer-reviewed research programs in several resource-restricted countries.

The CFAR has developed and effectively utilized strong and steadily increasing institutional structural and financial resources that are dedicated to enhance services provided by eight well-defined CFAR Cores.

•  Strengthening capacity for HIV/AIDS research in developing countries. The CFAR has steadily increased its training and research programs in both South and Southeast Asia nations and in sub-Saharan African countries. Its most extensive collaborative research foci have been in Chennai and Vellore, India, from which three collaborating Indian medical scientists have achieved independent NIH research funding, and are now an integral part of the ACTG and the HPTN Clinical Trials networks. CFAR members have also developed collaborative research in Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam in Asia, and in Kenya, South Africa and Ghana in Africa. Six CFAR Developmental Awards have been given to support the research of junior faculty in these resource-restricted countries.

•  Simulating scientific collaborations in interdisciplinary and translational research. The CFAR has developed strong new cross-disciplinary research involving basic, clinical, and behavioral scientists from both the Tufts and Brown campuses. Recent examples have been the application of carbon nanotechnology, initially supported by a CFAR collaborative Developmental Grant, to both basic and translational retrovirology; and the collaboration of computer scientists and clinical neuroscientists in applying sophisticated nuclear imaging techniques to dynamic longitudinal studies of HIV-related neurocognitive changes. Such collaborations have been a major factor in the steadily increasing NIH research funding to CFAR participants.

•  Fostering scientific communication. The CFAR communicates with its membership primarily through electronic media (e-mail and web page), and by sponsoring bi-monthly research-in-progress seminars (via videoconferencing to both campuses). Larger local and regional conferences are organized by the CFAR to address specific research and educational challenges. CFAR members have contributed at an increasing rate to national and international scientific research meetings, with steadily increasing numbers of oral or abstract presentations in these fora. They have contributed several hundred articles to the peer-reviewed scientific literature.

•  Sponsoring training and education. CFAR members are involved in a number of outreach educational efforts throughout Rhode Island and the Boston area. CFAR members teach the courses on HIV/AIDS to undergraduates and are responsible for the education of medical students, resident physicians and Fellows in this area for both Tufts and Brown Universities. The CFAR faculty, through the International Scientific Program, lead the Brown/Tufts Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP), with active research training of physicians from India, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Kenya. Basic and clinical CFAR faculty from Brown and Tufts Universities has worked closely together in these endeavors.

•  Dissemination of CFAR research findings and the importance of AIDS research through community outreach. This CFAR sponsors several public symposia on World AIDS Day, as well as quarterly symposia for health care professionals covering advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS on both the Boston and Rhode Island campuses. CFAR faculty visit community health centers north of Boston monthly to discuss evolving HIV care with primary care physicians and family practice residents; they also speak regularly at the Boston Learning Center. CFAR members also serve on the boards of the two major HIV provider groups in Rhode Island, AIDS Care Ocean State and Rhode Island Project AIDS, as well as on similar agencies in Boston. They also serve on advisory committees for both the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Departments of Health.

•  Establishing collaborative research and supporting HIV/AIDS research networks. Members of this CFAR have active defined research collaborations with the majority of other CFAR programs, involving both domestic and international sites. CFAR faculty has held leadership positions in national research networks, including ACTG, CDAAR, HVTN, HPTN and microbicide programs.

•  Promoting and sponsoring innovative HIV/AIDS initiatives. CFAR members are leading multidisciplinary approaches to the development of effective and acceptable microbicides, which could be applicable both domestically and in resource-restricted countries. Investigators are also carrying out unique collaborative studies of the relationship of viral burden in intestinal mucosal cells to gut function in South Indian patients with HIV-associated weight loss.

•  Facilitating development of AIDS therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostics through promotion of scientific interactions between CFAR investigators and industry. Members of this CFAR are involved in collaborations with a number of industrial scientists, and such research collaborations are supported by each of the clinical cores. There are now collaborations with industry in the development of potential vaccine components, as well as in the study of vaccine and microbicide candidates, supported by the Prevention Science Core.

•  Supporting research on prevention and treatment of HIV infection in hard-to-reach populations, especially in inner city women, intravenous substance users and disadvantaged minorities. Such research has been the primary focus of this CFAR since its inception, with especial emphases on women, intravenous drug users, incarcerated populations and racial and ethnic minorities. A major focus of our Developmental Core has been the recruitment, training and development of junior African-American biomedical scientists.