2017 HIVMA Medical Student Program Award Winners

HIVMA Medical Student Program to support learning and research across spectrum of HIV care

HIVMA is pleased to announce the selection of 14 medical students from across the US who will receive funding for clinical learning and research projects through the HIVMA Medical Student Program. The program will support research in local and overseas settings;including basic science investigations evaluating novel vaccine strategies, clinical research including modeling the cost-effectiveness of PrEP delivery using maternal and child health clinics, and implementation science such as the development of protocols to guide clinicians through street-based HIV care for long-term homeless populations. The students will be mentored by HIVMA members at their institutions, and will receive free membership to HIVMA and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and a stipend of $3,500 per year for up to three years.

“In doing this research, these students are demonstrating a commitment to the spirit of inquiry that will be essential to continued advances in prevention, care, treatment and control of HIV, and to improving the lives of their patients,” HIVMA Chair Dr. Wendy Armstrong said. ;“We look forward to the contributions they will make through this program and into the future.”

The selected students, their mentors, institutions, and project titles are:

Afkera Daniel
MENTOR: Alison C. Roxby MD, M.Sc.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Understanding Unprotected Sex Among Adolescent Girls in Kenya: Epidemiologic and Qualitative Research to Plan PreP Services

Shane Falcinelli
MENTOR: David Margolis, MD
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
Clinical Trials for an HIV Cure: Accurately Monitoring the Status of the Latent Reservoir in Antiretroviral Suppressed Patients

Olivia Fankuchen
MENTOR: Jeffrey M. Percak, MD
Tulane University School of Medicine
Building a protocol for street-based HIV screening, treatment, and follow-up for long-term homeless populations in New Orleans

Celia Fung
MENTOR: Michael C. Keefer, MD
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
HIV Vaccine Development: A Look at Molecular and Social Challenges

David Gootenberg
MENTOR: Douglas S. Kwon, MD, PhD
Harvard Medical School
The role of the enteric microbiome in chronic HIV pathogenesis and cardiovascular disease in HIV-infected individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa

Ryan Handoko
MENTOR: Serena Spudich, MD, MA
Yale School of Medicine
Genetic signatures and pathogenesis of CNS-reservoir HIV

Lee Hufstedler;
MENTOR: Sheri Weiser, MD
University of California Berkeley-University of California San Francisco Joint Medical Program
Transgender youth homelessness and HIV: An exploration of structural determinants of health in a vulnerable urban population

Gregory Karelas
MENTOR: Bruce Agins, MD, MPH
Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons
AIDS Mortality as a Sentinel Event

Joshua Niforatos
MENTOR: Justin Yax, DO, DTMH
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University
The Relationship of Clinical Knowledge of HIV/STIs and Sexual History Documentation with HIV Screening Patterns Among Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care Providers

Sean O'Keefe
MENTOR: William R. Jacobs, Jr., PhD
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Recombinant HSV-2 ΔgD constructs expressing HIV-1 gp140 as a novel HIV vaccine strategy

Justin Rice
MENTOR: Douglas S. Kwon, MD, PhD
Harvard Medical School
The Cervicovaginal Microbiome's Influence on HIV Susceptibility: An Investigation of Mechanisms and Potential Interventions

David Roberts
MENTOR: Ruanne V Barnabas, MD, DPhil
University of Washington School of Medicine
Modeling the Cost-Effectiveness of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Delivery through Maternal and Child Health Clinics in Western Kenya

Tim Walsh
MENTOR: Moira McNulty, MD
Florida State University College of Medicine
Goal-Setting in a Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) intervention among young Black men who have sex with men

Alex Warr
MENTOR: Thomas Hawn, MD, PhD
University of Washington School of Medicine
Mycobacterium tuberculosis-specific T-cell Responses in Breast Milk and Peripheral Blood of HIV Positive Mothers