
HIV and Aging Leadership
Director
Scientific Director, Boston Pepper Center
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
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Dr. Montano's Bio
Monty Montano PhD is on the Harvard faculty and is the Scientific Director of the Boston Pepper Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Montano received a Ph.D. in Genetics from Stanford University School of Medicine and did his postdoctoral work at the Harvard School of Public Health. He conducts international translational research on aging, musculoskeletal regeneration, and chronic HIV infection. Dr. Montano is the principal investigator of an NIH R01 & R21 focused on physical function muscle biomarkers in HIV and aging. He is the Founder of MyoSyntax, a biotechnology company promoting muscle health span. Dr. Montano is the author of a book on translational medicine entitled, “Translational Biology in Medicine: Models from Aging, Muscle Regeneration and Infection.”
Selected Publications
Biomarker signatures of aging.
BET bromodomain inhibition as a novel strategy for reactivation of HIV-1.
Premature expression of a muscle fibrosis axis in chronic HIV infection.
Age and Sex Distributions of Age-Related Biomarker Values in Healthy Older Adults from the Long Life Family Study.
Co-Director
Director, HU CFAR Advanced Technology Core
Associate Professor Medicine, Harvard Medical School
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Dr. Reeve's Bio
Dr. R. Keith Reeves is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research of BIDMC. He is also the Director of the Harvard CFAR Advanced Technologies Core and an Associate Member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard. Dr. Reeves obtained his PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Patricia Fultz at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2007 where his work focused on plasmacytoid dendritic cells as a mediator of inflammation in lentivirus infections. Dr. Reeves then completed his postdoctoral work and was junior faculty at the New England Primate Research Center of Harvard Medical School where his studies focused on natural killer (NK) cell biology in nonhuman primates. He has published extensively in this field providing some of the most comprehensive analyses of NK cells and innate lymphoid cells (ILC) in HIV, SIV, and HCV infections to date, including the first characterization of memory NK cells in any primate species. Dr. Reeves’ current research focuses on harnessing NK cells in the context of HIV vaccines and cure strategies, and how aging and immune senescence may occur prematurely in lentivirus infection resulting in increased co-morbidities.
Selected Publications
Innate Lymphoid Cells in HIV/SIV Infections
Redefining Memory: Building the Case for Adaptive NK Cells
NK cell exhaustion: bad news for chronic disease?
Antigen-specific NK cell memory in rhesus macaques
Targeting the gastrointestinal tract to develop novel therapies for HIV
Hypercytotoxicity and rapid loss of NKp44+ innate lymphoid cells during acute SIV infection
Gut inflammation and indoleamine deoxygenase inhibit IL-17 production and promote cytotoxic potential in NKp44+ mucosal NK cells during SIV infection
Advisory
Dr. Galit Alter
Associate Director, HU CFAR Program in HIV Vaccines
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Alter's Bio
Galit Alter, PhD is a Professor in Medicine at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard and leads a laboratory that collectively works towards the single goal of developing novel vaccine approaches aimed at recruiting and directing the antiviral activity of the innate immune system to kill virally infected cells. Dr. Alter received her PhD in Experimental Medicine from McGill University and performed her post-doctoral work under Dr. Marcus Altfeld at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Her current research interests lie at the intersection of the innate immune response and the adaptive humoral immune response, with a focus on defining the role of innate immune recruiting antibodies in providing specificity to the innate immune system to kill virally infected cells. Specifically, Dr. Alter’s work focuses on developing high-throughput assays aimed at dissecting the “protective profiles” and functional activity of polyclonal pools of antiviral antibodies induced via vaccination or during natural infection. To this end her laboratory has established high-throughput assays that simultaneously interrogate the functional activity of polyclonal pools of antibodies in tandem to defining the biophysical features of the most functional humoral immune responses. Together, Dr. Alter utilizes these data to then selectively purify the most “protective” antigen-specific B cells for RNA sequencing, to enable to production of the most potent therapeutic antibodies and to learn about the underlying mechanism by which protective B cell responses are programmed to aide in the development of next generation vaccines that may direct the antiviral activity of the innate immune response.
Selected Publications
Systems serology: profiling vaccine induced humoral immunity against HIV.
Temporal variation in HIV-specific IgG subclass antibodies during acute infection differentiates spontaneous controllers from chronic progressors.
Beyond binding: antibody effector functions in infectious diseases.
Plasma CXCL13 but Not B Cell Frequencies in Acute HIV Infection Predicts Emergence of Cross-Neutralizing Antibodies.
Systems serology for evaluation of HIV vaccine trials.
Dr. Paul Sax
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Sax's Bio
Dr. Paul E. Sax is Clinical Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the HIV Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sax received his MD from Harvard Medical School, then did his residency in Internal Medicine at BWH, while continuing his postdoctoral education with a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is Editor-in-Chief of Open Forum Infectious Diseases, is Section Editor of HIV/AIDS in UpToDate, on the Editorial Board of NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases (where he writes the HIV and ID Observations blog), and on the editorial advisory board of Medscape HIV/AIDS. Dr. Sax is also on the core faculty of the International AIDS Society - USA and the New England AIDS Education and Training Center. In addition to his clinical practice and teaching, Dr. Sax’s ongoing areas of research include clinical trials of antiretroviral therapies, cost-effectiveness of management strategies for HIV, and toxicity of antiretroviral therapy. He is presently the principal investigator at the BWH AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, and is a member of the Cost-Effectiveness of Preventing AIDS Complications (CEPAC) Research Group.
Selected Publications
Coformulated bictegravir, emtricitabine, and tenofovir alafenamide versus dolutegravir with emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide, for initial treatment of HIV-1 infection (GS-US-380-1490): a randomised, double-blind, multicentre, phase 3, non-inferiority trial.
Virological outcomes of EVG/COBI/FTC/TDF and EVG/COBI/FTC/TAF in antiretroviral-naive HIV-1-infected participants with baseline HIV-1 RNA ≥1,000,000 copies/ml: a post hoc analysis of Phase III clinical trials.
Improving on effective antiretroviral therapy: how good will a cure have to be?
Tenofovir alafenamide versus tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, coformulated with elvitegravir, cobicistat, and emtricitabine, for initial treatment of HIV-1 infection: two randomised, double-blind, phase 3, non-inferiority trials.
Dr. David Sinclair
Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Professor, UNSW, Sydney.
Dr. Sinclair's Bio
Selected Publications
Slowing ageing by design: the rise of NAD<sup>+</sup> and sirtuin-activating compounds.
Why NAD(+) Declines during Aging: It's Destroyed.
Declining NAD(+) induces a pseudohypoxic state disrupting nuclear-mitochondrial communication during aging.
Evidence for a common mechanism of SIRT1 regulation by allosteric activators.
Dr. Shalender Bhasin
Director, Boston Pepper Center
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Bhasin's Bio
Dr. Bhasin is the Director of the Research Program in Men’s Health: Aging and Metabolism and the Director of the NIA-funded Boston Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center for Function Promoting Therapies at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his MD from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, India, residency training at Northwestern University Medical School and fellowship training in Endocrinology and Nutrition at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA.
Selected Publications
Strategies to Reduce Injuries and Develop Confidence in Elders (STRIDE): A Cluster-Randomized Pragmatic Trial of a Multifactorial Fall Injury Prevention Strategy: Design and Methods.
Administration of an activin receptor IIB ligand trap protects male juvenile rhesus macaques from simian immunodeficiency virus-associated bone loss.
Sarcopenia Trials in Specific Diseases: Report by the International Conference on Frailty and Sarcopenia Research Task Force.
PHARMACOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS IN FRAILTY AND SARCOPENIA: REPORT BY THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON FRAILTY AND SARCOPENIA RESEARCH TASK FORCE.
Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators as Function Promoting Therapies.
Effects of Testosterone Supplementation for 3 Years on Muscle Performance and Physical Function in Older Men.
Dr. Shahin Lockman
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School
Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Lockman's Bio
Selected Publications
Neurodevelopment of HIV-Exposed and HIV-Unexposed Uninfected Children at 24 Months.
HIV Infection and Survival Among Women With Cervical Cancer.
Hidden in plain sight: HIV, antiretrovirals, and stillbirths.
Cancer Incidence following Expansion of HIV Treatment in Botswana.
Predictors of suboptimal CD4 response among women achieving virologic suppression in a randomized antiretroviral treatment trial, Africa.
Nevirapine- versus lopinavir/ritonavir-based initial therapy for HIV-1 infection among women in Africa: a randomized trial.
Treatment-for-prevention: clinical considerations.
Antiretroviral therapies in women after single-dose nevirapine exposure.
Dr. Bisola Ojikutu
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
Dr. Ojikutu's Bio
Dr. Ojikutu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Physician within the Division of Global Health Equity, Faculty within the Infectious Disease Division at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Adjunct Faculty at The Fenway Institute. She is also the Director of the Community Engaged Research Program within the Harvard University Center for AIDS Research. As of August 2018 she will be an Associate Director for the Bio-Behavioral and Community Science Core within the HU CFAR. Her research is focused on overcoming racial and ethnic disparities in access to HIV and STI prevention, care and treatment. Her NIH (NIMH) funded research is designed to determine the structural factors that promote HIV and STI risk among Black individuals in the US. She is also co-editor of a comprehensive textbook providing evidence based approaches to diminish racial and ethnic disparities in HIV in communities of color in the US (Springer). She is the co-PI of the National Survey on HIV in the Black Community (NSHBC) funded by the HU CFAR and formerly co-led the Health Equity Scientific Working Group. She is also on the leadership team for the Getting to Zero Statewide Initiative (to end the HIV epidemic) in Massachusetts.
Selected Publications
Women, inequality, and the burden of HIV.
Ojikutu BO, Stone VE.
N Engl J Med. 2005 Feb 17;352(7):649-52. No abstract available.
Ojikutu BO, Bogart LM, Higgins-Biddle M, Dale SK, Allen W, Dominique T, Mayer KH.
AIDS Behav. 2018 Feb 21. doi: 10.1007/s10461-018-2067-8. [Epub ahead of print]
Ojikutu BO, Nnaji C, Sithole-Berk J, Masongo D, Nichols K, Weeks N, Ngminebayihi M, Bishop E, Bogart LM.
AIDS Care. 2018 Jul 15:1-9. doi: 10.1080/09540121.2018.1497767. [Epub ahead of print]
HIV Testing Among Black and Hispanic Immigrants in the United States.
Ojikutu BO, Mazzola E, Fullem A, Vega R, Landers S, Gelman RS, Bogart LM.
AIDS Patient Care STDS. 2016 Jul;30(7):307-14. doi: 10.1089/apc.2016.0120.