Brian Mustanski, PhD, and Richard D’Aquila, MD, at the 2022 CFAR Annual Meeting.
Brian Mustanski, PhD, and Richard D’Aquila, MD

Greetings!

Welcome to the Third Coast Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). We’d like to provide a sampling of the work our researchers are doing, how the Third Coast CFAR helps them, and invite you to join us in advancing research to end HIV.

Over the course of our careers, research has enabled major progress. Treatment advances have dramatically improved life expectancy and led to effective prevention. There is now real promise that coordinated efforts to better implement both optimal treatment and prevention “cascades of care” may actually lead to Ending the HIV Epidemic. Many of our CFAR’s members and community partners are national leaders in community-engaged translational and implementation research toward that goal, and our Scientific Working Group is providing opportunities for new, local collaborative ideas. This work builds on their leadership in improving the health of Chicago’s diverse communities, including racial, sexual, and gender minorities.

Our researchers are learning from observational cohorts of those living with, and at risk for, HIV. In doing so, they are increasing their focus on the aging-associated conditions that continue to impinge on the healthy lifespan of persons living with HIV, even when their HIV is well-suppressed.

Synergistic collaborations across disciplines are spawning innovation for better ways to treat HIV and its comorbidities, as well as to prevent new HIV infections. Researchers from multiple schools at our universities are contributing to promising, ongoing research that can help overcome the hurdles to an HIV/AIDS-free world and a long, healthy lifespan for all those living with HIV.

The Third Coast CFAR’s Scientific Cores provide resources to help all HIV researchers. In addition, our Developmental Core funds new research and mentors the next generation of researchers. We appreciate our schools’ generous supplementation of our NIH-awarded funds to seed new research this way. Those who are interested in helping us can do so through donations, and by staying connected through our newsletter, membership, and social media.

We hope you learn something on our website – and return often. Please let us know how we can better help you to contribute to our shared goal of ending the HIV epidemic. Feel free to send your thoughts to: cfar@northwestern.edu.

Sincerely,

Brian Mustanski, PhD
Director, Third Coast Center for AIDS Research

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