An investigative team led by researchers from the George Washington University (GW) has received a $28 million, five year grant from the National Institutes of Health to lead an 18-site collaboration called "BELIEVE". This project will apply immunotherapy advances to advance a novel HIV cure strategy. DC CFAR Basic Sciences Core Director, Douglas Nixon, MD, PhD, is the Principal Investigator of the project, with DC CFAR members, Brad Jones, PhD, Catherine Bollard, MD, and Alan Greenberg, MD, MPH, serving on the executive committee. Multiple DC CFAR members from GW, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University, Howard University and Whitman-Walker Health played key roles in the development of the project, and will be integral in providing services and support moving forward.
"The DC CFAR congratulates Dr. Nixon and his team on this momentous award, and is deeply committed to providing support and services for the BELIEVE collaboratory as part of our mission to enhance research that contributes to ending the HIV epidemic in Washington, DC and beyond," said Alan Greenberg, Director of the DC CFAR.
The GW press release states: "This award is part of the second iteration of the NIH's Martin Delaney Collaboratory program, which fosters public-private partnerships to accelerate HIV/AIDS cure research. Delaney was a widely respected AIDS activist who championed public-partnerships involving government, academia, and industry.
'We are happy and humbled to have been selected as one of the recipients of this important award," said Douglas Nixon, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine in the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS). "We have gathered together a diverse group of researchers, who are all driven by the belief that a cure will depend on enhancing natural anti-HIV immunity, and that this must be accomplished in a fully participatory stakeholder fashion.' "
Click here to read the full press release.