Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1st, we asked several BC-CfE researchers about their work and how it relates to this year’s World AIDS Day theme of ‘End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics’.
Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1st, we asked several BC-CfE researchers about their work and how it relates to this year’s World AIDS Day theme of ‘End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics’.
Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1st, we asked several BC-CfE researchers about their work and how it relates to this year’s World AIDS Day theme of ‘End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics’. Dr. Kate Salters, a BC-CfE research scientist, leads the Viral Hepatitis Research Program.
Dr. Peter Cheung, a staff scientist in the BC-CfE laboratory, recently published a paper as a co-first author on the topic of a novel antiviral compound discovery.Dr. Cheung worked with researchers at the University of BC and the University of Toronto to characterize chemical compounds that inhibit HIV in novel ways compared to antiretroviral agents currently used. Specifically, the molecules discussed in the paper “2-Trifluoromethylthiazole-5-carboxamides: Analogues of a Stilbene-Based Anti-HIV Agent that Impact HIV mRNA Processing” impact the processing and production of mRNA “messages” that instruct a cell to make proteins.
Understanding the dynamics within HIV transmission clusters is critical information that can help prioritize public health resource allocation. Although HIV sequence clustering is routinely used to identify subpopulations experiencing elevated transmission, there’s a risk of over-simplifying transmission dynamics within clusters as well as the risk that clustering methodology influences outcomes.
The Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS) prioritizes community-based research with a heavy focus on increasing the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in research, particularly women.
The BC-CfE’s Clinical Education and Training Program recently saw a change in leadership from Dr. Silvia Guillemi, who started leading the program when it began back in 2011, to Dr. Val Montessori. Dr. Montessori has multiple roles, as she will be leading the Clinical Education and Training Program while also serving as the Head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at St. Paul’s Hospital and as the Co-chair of the Committee for Drug Evaluation and Therapy. Dr. Montessori also works as a Clinical Associate professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of British Columbia. The Clinical Education and Training Program was designed to provide learning opportunities on the diagnosis, treatment, management and care of HIV/AIDS and related conditions through personalized learning programs.
BC-CfE researchers recently published a study comparing rates and trends of HIV diagnoses among Indigenous Peoples in Canada, Australia, the USA, and New Zealand.
The study is titled “Rates of new HIV diagnoses among Indigenous Peoples in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States: 2009-2017” and the researchers used publicly available surveillance data to estimate the rate of HIV diagnoses per 100,000 people. Each of the four countries examined have passive population-based HIV surveillance programs.
The BC-CfE recognizes the unfathomable grief and loss Indigenous peoples and their families have suffered, and continue to suffer, through colonization and the residential school system. Accepting these challenging and difficult truths is an essential part of the journey of healing and reconciliation.
A new research report by the BC-CfE adds to the growing body of evidence that elderly individuals don’t mount as strong, or durable, immune responses to the COVID-19 vaccines as compared to younger individuals. This COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF)-funded study was done in collaboration with Providence Health Care and Simon Fraser University. The study is currently in pre-print and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
