Pilot Awards Recipients

The DC CFAR funds a wide array of HIV investigators in basic, clinical, and socio-behavioral science. The most recent awardees are listed below

View the archive to learn more about awards given in 2017 or earlier.

Headshot of Dr. Taisuke Izumi

Pilot Award Recipient: Taisuke Izumi, PhD

Dr. Izumi is a Spring 2024 Pilot Awardee and will investigate the Role of DAC, PARP, and Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors for Latency Reversal and Immune Activation for a Comprehensive Functional HIV...

Headshot of Dr. Haijun Gao

Pilot Award Recipient: Haijun Gao, PhD

Dr. Haijun Gao is a Spring 2024 Pilot Awardee and will investigate the effects of cabotegravir exposure on placental mitochondrial functions

Picture of Dr. Preethi Chandran in a lab

Pilot Award Recipient: Preethi Chandran, PhD

Dr. Chandran is a Spring 2024 Pilot Awardee and will investigate the effect of environmental factors on interactions between HIV and vaginal mucosal barriers.

Headshot of Dr. Bethel Woldu

Pilot Award Recipient: Bethel Woldu, MD, MPH

Dr. Woldu is a Fall 2023 DC CFAR Pilot Awardee and will investigate cardiac dysfunction in people living with HIV.

Headshot of Dr. Ellen Yeung

Pilot Award Recipient: Ellen Yeung, PhD

Dr. Yeung is a Fall 2023 DC CFAR Pilot Awardee and will investigate the impacts of alcohol misuse, chronic pain and cognitive function in people living with HIV

Headshot of Dr. Randi Williams

Pilot Award Recipient: Randi Williams, PhD, MPH

Dr. Williams is a Fall 2023 DC CFAR Pilot Awardee and will investigate lung cancer control strategies for people living with HIV

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Pilot Award Recipient: Xiping Zhan, PhD

Studies suggest that HAND results from HIV replication in the brain which induces neurodegeneration, particularly in subcortical structures such as striatum, which is extremely vulnerable.

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Pilot Award Recipient: Seshagiri Rao Nandula, PhD

Seshagiri Rao Nandula, PhD has received a pilot award to study the effect of HIV medications on cardiometabolic health in African American Veterans.

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Pilot Award Recipient: Derek Dangerfield II, PhD

PrEP initiation must be substantially improved among young Black sexual minority men (SMM) to meet the goals of the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Plan for 2030.

Pilot Award Recipient: Michael Anthony Thomas, PhD

Despite significant advancements made in treatment, in 2021 about 650 thousand people died from HIV related causes.