Research & Programs

Scientific Working Groups, Programs and Steering Committees

Research activities are organized around scientific programs and working groups that represent a cross-section of member strengths and disciplines and form the architecture used to organize groups and facilitate collaborations.

Scientific programs and working groups host conferences, provide mentoring support for junior investigators, submit proposals for grant support, and organize around new research initiatives.

Scientific Working Groups

HIV and Malignancy

The primary of the HIV and Malignancy Scientific Working Group is to address the growing burden of malignancies among people with HIV by 1) engaging community partners, clinicians, and scientists; 2) facilitating clinical and specimen data synthesis and interpretation; and 3) supporting investigators, especially ECIs, in studies of cancer and HIV. A key theme of the SWG is to catalyze translational research, with membership spanning Harvard experts in retrovirology, oncogenesis, HIV reservoirs, clinical trials and population health interventions

Specimen under a microscope

Substance Use and HIV

The Substance Use and HIV Scientific Working Group aims to facilitate innovative and fruitful collaborations focused on substance use and HIV across the HU CFAR. While the role of substance use in the perpetuation of the HIV epidemic is well established in the literature, collaborations focused on substance use in the context of HIV treatment and prevention is underdeveloped at the HU CFAR. Over 20 million people in the US alone are living with substance use disorders.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee

Illustration of hands around a globe

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Steering Committee

The diversification of the HIV research workforce is essential to improve the relevance of HIV research to communities most affected by HIV; facilitate creative, novel, and context-specific approaches to reaching all people at risk for and living with HIV; and ultimately end the HIV epidemic.

Black and Latinx researchers are markedly underrepresented in biomedical research in general, and HIV research in particular. People who are underrepresented in medicine (URM) face specific barriers to participation in HIV research at all stages of their education and training, from early school-age years through graduate school, fellowship, and faculty positions.

The HU CFAR’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Steering Committee aims to directly address issues of DEI with the goal to increase the number of underrepresented minorities trainees who engage in HIV science and to develop pathways to successful careers in science and medicine.

Inter-CFAR Working Groups

Inter-CFAR Antiretrovirals for Prevention Working Group (AFP)

One of the missions of the CFAR Program is to foster CFAR–CFAR collaborations.

Drs Kenneth Mayer (HU CFAR) and Patrick Sullivan (Emory CFAR) convene the Inter-CFAR Antiretrovirals for Prevention Working Group (AFP) (click here for more information).

A group of people looking at the slide

Inter-CFAR Collaboration
on HIV Research in Women

The Inter-CFAR Collaboration on HIV Research in Women is a network of CFAR investigators dedicated to promoting cutting-edge science in HIV research and women.

Drs Kate Powis (HU CFAR) and Maria Alcaide (Miami CFAR) convene the Inter-CFAR Collaboration on HIV Research in Women (click here for more information).

Programs

Specimen report

Program in Placental and HIV

The Program in Placental and HIV aims to convene Boston-regional group of scientists engaged in placental research along with a national/international group of placental scientists and host a symposium focused on placental science among women living with HIV. The program also aims to mentor young investigators within the Harvard University system interested in placental science and define a mechanism for pilot funding to launch these junior investigators, and develop a grant proposal for a collaborative placental research effort involving both senior and junior scientist members of the program.

Injection with medicines and glass vials

Program in HIV Vaccines

The Program in HIV Vaccines provides a forum for interaction around basic, preclinical, and clinical research in HIV vaccines across Harvard and affiliated hospitals and institutions. The two major goals of the program are to engage and develop Early Career Investigators with an interest in HIV vaccine research, and maintain a forum for CFAR investigators to strategically promote integrated and efficient collaboration on preventive and therapeutic HIV vaccine related research.

Labeled vials

Program in HIV Eradication

The Program in HIV Eradication develops innovative multidisciplinary projects aimed at addressing basic science and translational questions regarding HIV-1 eradication and cure research.

Two men reading graphs

The goals of the Program in Health Economics and Modeling are to support and facilitate the expansion of simulation modeling and cost-effectiveness analysis within the HU CFAR, as well as with other CFARs; to mentor and develop Early Stage Investigators in health economics and modeling, participate in Research-in-Progress meetings across the CFAR, as well as serve as mentors and collaborators to conduct cost-effectiveness analyses.

Program in Adolescence and HIV

The Program in Adolescence and HIV has three primary aims, including 1) engagement by promoting participation in adolescent-focused HIV prevention and care research from a broad community of investigators and public health organizations, 2) methodologic support by developing a novel adolescent HIV research “tool kit,” drawing on clinical and methodologic research expertise of HU CFAR investigators and 3) mentorship and research catalyst by creating new cross-disciplinary collaborations and mentorship relationships to support adolescent HIV-focused research projects.

Basic & Translational Science Steering Committee (BTS-SC)

The Harvard University Center for AIDS Research (HU CFAR) has recently formed a Basic & Translational Science Steering Committee (BTS-SC) to chart a strategic direction and guide implementation of activities that engage and support lab-based HIV researchers at Harvard and its affiliated institutions. The HU CFAR has a long-standing history of highly collaborative and productive basic research science.

Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) Steering Committee

The goal of the EHE Task Force is to identify research gaps and facilitate productive collaborations between Harvard CFAR investigators with diverse expertise and interests, local implementation partners (e.g., city and state health departments, community health centers), and community-based organizations that share a vision of developing and implementing strategies to help achieve the goals of the EHE initiative, with the potential to catalyze a future EHE Scientific Working Group.