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CFAR Scientists at Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory Receive $9 Million Grant for Groundbreaking Research

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) at Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory University more than $9 million in a five-year grant.

The CFAR program at the NIH provides administrative and shared research support to synergistically enhance and coordinate high quality AIDS research projects. CFARs accomplish this through core facilities that provide expertise, resources, and services not otherwise readily obtained through more traditional funding mechanisms.

"This grant will provide the scientists of MSM and Emory an opportunity to one day eliminate the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  The numbers of those affected in Atlanta and the Southeast has continued to rise. Every 35 minutes, a woman tests positive for HIV in this country and African Americans are being affected at an alarming rate – accounting for half of all new HIV diagnoses and just under half of new AIDS diagnoses. Through clinical trials, new treatment options, behavioral and therapeutic intervention and prevention, and providing access to care, we hope to see these numbers decrease," said Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, dean and executive vice president of Morehouse School of Medicine.

 The CFAR grant will support all areas of AIDS research conducted at Morehouse School of Medicine, including:

behavioral prevention research,

basic studies of immunology,

vaccine development,

HIV pathogenesis,

drug discovery, and

clinical and translational science.

Morehouse School and Medicine and Emory scientists deliver groundbreaking research

CFAR scientists at Emory, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and Morehouse School of Medicine have produced groundbreaking HIV/AIDS research, including the invention of HIV/AIDS drugs taken by more than 94 percent of U.S. patients on therapy and by thousands more around the globe.

The Atlanta Veteran's Affairs Medical Center (AVAMC), a Morehouse School of Medicine affiliated hospital, houses a clinical HIV program staffed by CFAR physicians that follow over 1,300 veterans with HIV disease – the largest population of HIV-infected patients within the national Veterans Affairs health care system. The AVAMC HIV program also maintains the oldest and most comprehensive research database of veterans with HIV/AIDS in the country, with records of more than 3,500 patients spanning 28 years. Research undertaken by CFAR scientists at the AVAMC has been crucial to new insights on HIV disease care and progression arising from the national Veterans Aging Cohort Study.

Morehouse School of Medicine is pleased to partner with CFAR's Hope Clinic of the Emory Vaccine Center, a national leader in conducting clinical trials for HIV vaccines and a top-enrolling site for the NIH HVTN (HIV Vaccine Trials Network). CFAR is also a leading clinical site for the NIH-led HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN). 

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