The Third Coast CFAR celebrated many collective achievements in 2022 and the center would like to thank its members for their contributions leading to a monumental year!

To begin with, the Third Coast CFAR’s Developmental Core made significant investments in new scientific research across all disciplines and member organizations. Eleven new pilot projects focus on high priority, cross-disciplinary HIV research, and provide an important career development opportunity to early stage investigators and faculty new to HIV. Three Ending the HIV Epidemic supplement projects strengthen implementation research collaborations between faculty and community organizations. And two new Community Collaborative Awards foster creative science-practice partnerships that will advance health equity initiatives and PrEP delivery for adolescents.

Support for community and public health initiatives addressing the HIV epidemic continued to be a focus of the Third Coast CFAR this year. Irina Tabidze, MD, and her team presented the CDPH 2022 HIV/STI Surveillance Report in an interactive seminar. Additionally, CFAR faculty worked with Getting to Zero Illinois to update the HIV dashboard and promote its use for collaborative research and quality improvement initiatives.

New initiatives are among some of the most important highlights from 2022. The first-ever round of Basic Science Collaborative Innovation Awards launched five new partnerships in HIV biology and viral pathogenesis research. The Third Coast CFAR also partnered with Northwestern’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing and the Southern AIDS Coalition to launch a two-week intensive training program in HIV science for pre-faculty BIPOC SGM investigators. In November, the center had the opportunity to host the leaders of all 19 CFARs and our NIH CFAR colleagues for the CFAR network’s annual meeting. At year’s end, the Third Coast CFAR formally announced a planned leadership transition, with Brian Mustanski, PhD, now serving as director, and Richard D’Aquila, MD, serving as co-director.

Read more about the latest Third Coast CFAR news, core services, projects, and events on our website. Twitter users can follow us @ThirdCoastCFAR.

Happy Holidays and New Year!

Brian Mustanski, PhD
Director
Third Coast Center for AIDS Research

Richard D’Aquila, MD
Co-Director
Third Coast Center for AIDS Research