Past Events

Visit the HOPE Conference section to see upcoming/past conferences

1. Grand Rounds Webinar: “Reflections on the Recent HIV Outbreak in Boston among People Who Inject Drugs”, Date: Friday, May 27, 2022, 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Location: Virtual Webinar via Zoom, Attend this HU CFAR Grand Rounds webinar sponsored by the HU CFAR Substance Use & HIV Scientific Working Group to learn ways the HU CFAR community can collaborate with those already involved across Boston to mitigate HIV incidence among people who inject drugs. View the announcement and register to join the conversation! 
2. “A 16 year-old boy seeking HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis”, Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 8:00am to 9:00am, Clinicopathological Conference (CPC) /Pediatric Grand Round, O’Keeffe Auditorium, BLK-1

1. HIV Working Group: “Subgroup analysis for Survival Outcomes: An Individualized Treatment Selection Approach for First line ART” presented by Evelyn Zhang, PhD
   Date: Friday, March 31, 2023
   Time: 1-1:50 pm Eastern Time, Join via Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91553757962?pwd=dHNVYlFMbUNJWHFzcHprcHV1SE5vQT09
   Presenter: Dr. Evelyn Zheng, PhD, Research Scientist in the Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research
   Title: Subgroup analysis for Survival Outcomes: An Individualized Treatment Selection Approach for First-line ART
   Abstract: Historically, the main goal for randomized clinical trials is to evaluate the overall treatment effect in efficacy and toxicity, but there has been a growing interest to understand the heterogeneity in treatment effect across participants characterized by their pre-treatment characteristics. Much literature exists on the limitations of traditional subgroup analysis and new methods have emerged to address some of the issues, but their implementation to the clinical or public health research is limited, especially when the outcome is time-to-event type of endpoint. We implemented an individualized treatment selection approach involving kernel estimating procedure to conduct subgroup analyses for ACTG A5257, a phase III randomized trial on first-line ART, to evaluate whether the overall treatment effect can be generalized to a more individualized level.
   
   Max Wang or Christina Fennell with questions related to the working group, including requests to present.
   
   Click here for more information on this series and a full list of dates and speakers.
   
2. HIV Working Group: “Advancing Health Justice through Race-Conscious Research” presented by Jessica Cerdeña, PhD
   
   Date: Friday, March 24, 2023, 1:00pm to 1:50pm
   
   Location: Virtual presentation via Zoom
   
   Speaker: Jessica Cerdeña, PhD, Medical Anthropologist and Family Physician in Training, Yale School of Medicine
   
   Abstract: Achieving equitable outcomes for oppressed and socially stigmatized communities—including people living with HIV—requires conscientious and rigorous science. This discussion will center on how to enact race-conscious data science, emphasizing the role of racism, rather than race, in determining health disparities. This talk will address questions regarding data collection, terminology, analytical strategies, and implications for clinical practice and policy advocacy. By developing more critical ways to interrogate the impact of racism on infectious disease, participants will disrupt the perpetuation of racial essentialism in biomedical research and call for increasingly reparative and liberative reforms. 
   
   Join the HIV Working Group Zoom Meeting! Password: 827259
   
3. HIV Working Group: “The influence of misinformation on outbreak response: Examining Ebola and COVID-19 research from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda” by Dr. Phuong Pham
   
   Date: Friday, March 3, 2023, 1:00pm to 1:50pm
   
   Location: Hybrid presentation
   
   Abstract: What was the role of trust and misinformation in shaping individual preventive behaviors during an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)? Additionally, how did trust and misinformation impact the response to COVID-19 in the DRC and Uganda? By examining survey data collected in both countries, Dr. Pham will explore the research findings and practical implications of addressing misinformation in outbreak control. 
   
   Join Zoom meeting: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91553757962?pwd=dHNVYlFMbUNJWHFzcHprcHV1SE5vQT09
   
   In-Person Location: Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Kresge 201
   
4. HIV Working Group: “Using stochastic-interventional causal effects to evaluate vaccine efficacy in clinical trials with outcome-dependent sampling” presented by Dr. Nima Hejazi, Harvard TH Chan SPH
   
   Date: Friday, February 17, 2023, 1:00pm to 1:50pm
   
   Location: Hybrid presentation
   
   Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91553757962?pwd=dHNVYlFMbUNJWHFzcHprcHV1SE5vQT09
   
   In-Person Location: Kresge 201
   
   Presenter: Dr.Nima Hejazi, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics
   
   Title: Using stochastic-interventional causal effects to evaluate vaccine efficacy in clinical trials with outcome-dependent sampling
   
   Abstract: In clinical trials randomizing participants to active vs. control conditions and following study units until the occurrence of a primary clinical endpoint, evaluating the effects of quantitative/ordinal treatments (e.g., drug dosage) or mediators (e.g., drug- or vaccine-induced immune activity) is challenging due, in part, to the strong historical emphasis that statistical causal inference has placed on estimands compatible only with binary (or categorical) treatments. We will discuss an alternative class of causal effect estimands tailored to quantitative/ordinal treatments and/or mediators: Stochastic-interventional causal effects, which provide a measure of the effect attributable to individual-level perturbations to “natural” (i.e., observed or induced) treatment/mediator values. Unfortunately, vaccine efficacy trials often use outcome-dependent, two-phase sampling (e.g., case-cohort designs) to measure vaccine-induced immune response (valuable for understanding the mechanisms by which vaccines confer protection or as surrogate endpoints in future clinical trials), which complicate population-level estimation and inference. Focusing on a causally informative vaccine efficacy measure, defined by contrasting assignments of study units to active vs. control conditions while simultaneously hypothetically shifting biomarker expression in the active condition, we outline a semi-parametric correction procedure that recovers population-level estimates under such designs and can achieve asymptotically efficient inference. We present the results of applying this approach as an immune correlates analysis of the COVID-19 Prevention Network’s COVE trial of Moderna’s two-dose COVID-19 mRNA-1273 vaccine.
   
   Contact Christina Fennell or Max Wang with questions related to the working group, including requests to present.
   
   Click here for more information on this series and a full list of dates and speakers.

1. Antiretroviral for Prevention Inter-CFAR Webinar: “PrEP delivery to young African women: Insights from the PrEP SMART, HPTN 084-OLE, and INSIGHT studies”
   
   Date: Monday, April 3, 2023, 12:00pm to 1:00pm
   
   Location: Virtual Webinar via Zoom
   
   Join the April 3 Antiretroviral for Prevention Inter-CFAR webinar titled “PrEP delivery to young African women: Insights from the PrEP SMART, HPTN 084-OLE, and INSIGHT studies” and moderated by HU CFAR Kenneth Mayer and Emory CFAR Patrick Sullivan.
   
   SPEAKERS: Connie Celum, MD, MPH is Professor of Global Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology and Director of the International Clinical Research Center and Center for AIDS Research at the University of Washington.  She is an infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and clinical investigator. Her research interests focus on HIV prevention strategies, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and prevention and treatment of sexually-transmitted infections.  She co-led the Partners PrEP Study, which demonstrated high efficacy of tenofovir and emtricitabine-tenofovir (FTC-TDF) prophylaxis, which contributed to FDA approval of PrEP for HIV prevention.  She has conducted research on implementation of oral PrEP among young African women, as well as a cross-over study of oral PrEP and dapivirine ring among adolescents and young African women.   She is co-leading a randomized trial of doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis for STI prevention among men who have sex with men and transgender women, living with HIV or HIV-uninfected and on PrEP.
   
   Jennifer Velloza, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Global Health and Infectious Disease Epidemiology. Her research, teaching, and mentoring focus on advancing the field of global mental health and the intersection with HIV and STI prevention specifically for adolescent girls and young women. In her current NIH-funded projects, Dr. Velloza uses implementation science, epidemiology, and behavioral science methods to design, evaluate, and scale-up integrated psychotherapy and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) delivery models. She collaborates primarily with teams in South Africa and Kenya for this work. Dr. Velloza is also the Associate Program Director for Curriculum for the Implementation Science Training Program and is a faculty member with the Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity (PRISE) Center.
   
   Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, MBBCh, PhD, DTM&H is a Research Professor and Director at Wits RHI Professor of Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her research interests span the intersections between sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and infectious diseases, particularly in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW). She has been an investigator on several phase III trials of new HIV prevention technologies and led the landmark trial for cabotegravir as injectable PrEP for women. She has also led several implementation studies to optimize oral PrEP use in adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in eastern and Southern Africa. She is an advisor to the South African National Department of Health PrEP technical working group and serves on several WHO and other advisory committees.
   
2. Inter-CFAR Webinar: “Using Local PrEP Equity Metrics to Measure Success in PrEP Scaleup” presented by Patrick Sullivan, DVM, PhD
   
   Date: Monday, March 6, 2023, 12:00pm to 1:00pm
   
   Location: Virtual Webinar via Zoom
   
   The Inter-CFAR Antiretrovirals for Prevention Working Group invites you to attend Dr. Patrick Sullivan’s talk titled “Using Local PrEP Equity Metrics to Measure Success in PrEP Scaleup.” 
   
   Click here to join the presentation! No RSVP required.
   
   SAVE THE DATE: Next appointment will be April 3, 2023 @ 12:00 PM ET co-presented by Connie L. Celum, MD, PhD; Jen Velloza, MPH, PhD; Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, MBBCh, MSc, PhD, DTM&H. 
   
   Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. 

1. DFCI T32 Virology Journal Club Meeting: “Heparan sulfate regulates IL-21 bioavailability and signal strength that control germinal center B cell selection and differentiation”
   
   Date: Tuesday, April 4, 2023, 2:00pm to 3:00pm
   
   Location: Virtual Meeting via Zoom
   
   The meeting will be led by Program Fellow Cole Batty (Marasco lab).
   
   Paper for discussion: Chen et al., Heparan sulfate regulates IL-21 bioavailability and signal strength that control germinal center B cell selection and differentiation. Sci Immunol. 2023 Feb 24;8(80):eadd1728. doi: 10.1126/sciimmunol.add1728. Epub 2023 Feb 17. PMID: 36800411. Download the article
   
   Zoom information: https://dfci.zoom.us/j/91315298526?pwd=MXJyV2ZXemdoYWFmcG8yUm9zMHJxQT09
   Meeting ID: 913 1529 8526 | Password: 815867

1. Workshop: Are you writing a K? Get practical advice.
   
   Date: Thursday, March 2, 2023, 1:00pm to 3:00pm
   
   Location: Joseph B. Martin Conference Center (Rotunda Room) 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur, Boston, MA 02155
   
   TIME TABLE:
   12:15 – 1pm | NETWORKING LUNCH
   1 – 3pm | K WRITING WORKSHOP
   3:15 – 4pm | ADMINISTRATIVE COMPONENTS (optional session)
   
   REGISTER HERE TO ATTEND THE K WRITING WORKSHOP.

Visit the Educational Opportunities page for past recordings of events.

Date: Friday, April 7, 2023, 8:00am to 9:00am

Location: Hybrid presentation

Joint this hybrid presentation by Sara Sauer, PhD titled “Estimating post-treatment recurrence after multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment among patients with and without HIV: the impact of assumptions about death and missing follow-up.”

HYBRID SESSION / No registration required
In person: Potts Conference Room (Gray/Bigelow 8), MGH
Virtually: Zoom link 

https://partners.zoom.us/j/85037629822?pwd=b2HBhZpgzFKQODMU63VCi5THVYbGki.1

Meeting ID: 850 3762 9822
Passcode: 859341

Date: Monday, March 27, 2023, 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Location: Hybrid presentation

Join the hybrid presentation via Zoom or in person at ID Conference Room AB406 (at BWH).

Presented remotely by Rodrigo Aguayo-Romero, PhD, Consultant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School/The Fenway Institute and Research Scientist at the Whitman Walker Institute. 

Date:  Wednesday, April 5, 2023, 4:00pm to 5:00pm, Location: Virtual presentation via Zoom, Presenters: Daniel Harrell, PhD Senior Research Fellow – Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute and Anjum Khurshid, MD PhD Faculty & Lead Data Scientist, Sentinel Operations Center, Division of Therapeutics and Infectious Disease Epidemiology -Department of Population Medicine – Harvard Medical School & Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Use the following Zoom link to join this virtual series: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84028032708

Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2023, 4:00pm to 5:00pm, Location: Virtual presentation via Zoom

Date: Monday, February 13, 2023, 12:30am to 1:30pm

Location: Hybrid presentation

Date: Friday, February 3, 2023, 8:00am to 9:00am

Location: Hybrid presentation

Join Prossy Bibangambah, MMed (Mbarara University of Science and Technology) this coming Friday for her research-in-progress talk titled “Radiology of Aging With HIV in Uganda.” 

Date: Monday, January 23, 2023, 12:30pm to 1:30pm

Location: Virtual presentation via Zoom

Join the January 23rd HIV Research-in-Progress presentation by Jen Manne-Goehler, MD, ScD, MSc titled “Obesity and diabetes in People with HIV: preventing an epidemic within the epidemic.”

Date: Friday, January 6, 2023, 8:00am to 9:00am

Location: Virtual presentation via Zoom

This is a hybrid event! Click here to view the full announcement and join the Research-in-progress presentation.