February 27 - March 6, 2018
 This Week in History ...
• 2/27/837: 15th recorded passage of Halley's Comet. Confused citizenry wonder yet again who "Halley" is since he won't be born for another 819 years.
• 2/28/1983: Elaborate Cosplay parties held across the nation as over 100M ardent fans gather to watch the final episode of M*A*S*H; a TV show about the Korean War that lasted almost 4x longer (11 years) than the actual Korean War (3 years).
• 3/1/1866: Paraguayan canoes sink 2 Brazilian ironclads. Embarrassed Brazilian navy immediately begins research on canoe-evasion techniques.
• 3/2/1976: Walt Disney World logs its 50 millionth guest. The other 49,999,999 are finally alllowed to go home.
• 3/3/1857: France and the United Kingdom declare war for the second time on China in an (ultimately successful) effort to force China into opening its borders and permit the importation of Opium into China from Europe. Seriously.
• 3/4/1909: The US makes it illegal for game birds to cross state lines. This doesn't prove to be as effective as you'd think since it turns out that most game birds don't know where the state lines are.
• 3/5/1558: Smoking tobacco introduced into Europe by a Spanish physician (Francisco Fernande) seeking to exploit its health benefits. Oops.
Kudos ...
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... to the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmfAR) for awarding Daniela Monaco, a post-doc in Eric Hunter's lab, a prestigious Mathilde Krim Fellowship in Basic Biomedical Research.
One of the most challenging aspects of developing an effective vaccine for HIV is that the virus is such a quick change artist that every "snapshot" of HIV that vaccines use in seeking out the bad guys becomes obsolte faster than you can spell "Mutagenesis." Danielle is working on stacking the deck in our favor by using blood samples from patients in Zambia to investigate what parts of HIV are least likely to mutate.
... and to the RSPH Department of Behavioral Science and Health Education for promoting Hannah Cooper, CFAR Prevention Science Core Co-Director, to the rank of Full Professor.
And speaking of the Prevention Science Core, are you a junior faculty member who does HIV-related prevention science research? Watch for email from Hannah soliciting her help in designing the content and format of the Core's new initiative to expand NIH-funded research in that area.
• Read More About It
In Other News ...
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Taussig, Jennifer (3/1).
CFARian Task Assignment ... Everybody go out and eat cake this Thursday in celebration of Jennifer's birthday!
Because the prevalence of HIV is so high inside their close knit sexual networks, African American and Latino MSM with few sexual partners still face a higher lifetime risk for HIV aquisition than do Caucasian MSM with many more partners.
In acknowledgment of the need to address this utterly unfair reality head on, Patrick Sullivan has received new funding from the CDC for "Engaging African American and Latino MSM for HIV Testing and Prevention Services."
Are you, or do you know, an early career physician-scientist whose work has the potential for, or has led to, innovations in patient care? The NIH Foundation (FNIH) is taking nominations for the FNIH Trailblazer Prize. This $10,000 honorarium and prize celebrates the achievements of medical doctors whose research has translated basic scientific observations into new paradigm-shifting approaches for diagnosing, preventing, treating or curing disease and disability.
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Are you heading to CROI next week? If so, don't forget to tag @EmoryCFAR in your conference tweets. You may also want to follow the CFAR and @CarlosdelRio7 for CFAR-specific live tweeting from #CROI2018.
For full information about CFARians presentation at CROI 2018, check out this program.
Speaking of... we have two Developmental Core awardees giving presentations of their CFAR-funded research -- Jonathan Colasanti ("Rapid entry into HIV care: Select Atlanta experiences") and Sam Jenness ("The PrEP Care continuum and HIV racial disparities among MSM"), and that two early-stage CFARians received CROI New Investigator Scholarship awards: Emily Evans ("Etiologies of symptomatic recurrence of HIV-associated cryptococal meningitis") and Anar Patel ("Predictors of PrEP eligibility among at risk women in the southern US").
And finally, if you end up having a really good time, please take a moment to thank Guido Silvestri for all the work he put into the event while serving on the CROI Scientific Program Committee.
Do Over Alert ...
Do you remember reading, in the 2/13/18 edition of Network News, about Jessica Sales new R01-equivalent funding from the UNC Chapel Hill ACTU for a "Planning4PrEP" intervention?
Turns out it was a multi-PI award so here's an embarressed, belated shout out to the OTHER PI, Anandi Sheth.
Many thanks to Sophia Hussen for bringing the omission to our attention!
Bulletin Board...
Grant Applicants Sought: NIH CFAR Supplemental Funds
As described in detail in the 2/20/18 edition of Network News, the National CFAR has released FY18 FOAs in six scientific areas of interest.
• Download the FOAs
- Key Dates:
- 3/12/18: Register your potential interest
to submit a pre-proposal
3/15/18: Email a 1-page pre-proposal to Jenny Anderson (jenny.anderson@emory.edu)
3/17/18: Applicants notified of internal selection results.
- 5/14/18: Applications due at NIH
Community Corner...
Celebrate Sandy!
Please join us in vigorously applauding the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington's decision to present Sandy Thurman with their Ryan White Distinguished Leadership Award.
"There is no part of this AIDS epidemic that Sandy hasn't touched in some way," said Ryan White's mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, while presenting the award in her son's honor.
Read More About It
Celebrate Other Heroes Too!
Do you recognize these people? They are members of CFAR's Community Liaison Council (CLC) plus the five winners of the CLC's 2017 (1st annual) Barbara Vick Impact Awards (aka "The CFAR Barbies"). Rama Amara, Jennifer Barnes-Balenciaga, Mona Bennett, Tori Cooper, and Johnnie Ray Kornegay, III were chosen for their new and/or under-recognized contributions to the HIV response in Atlanta.
So let's do it again in 2018!
The CLC invites you to help more Local Heroes get the recognition they deserve by submitting your nominations for the 2nd Annual Barbies and then -- SAVE THE DATE -- plan to join them for a festive evening on
Thursday, May 24, 2018.
• Click here to submit your nomination (Deadline, midnight EDST, 3/13/18)
Focus On...
Writing a CFAR-series Application
Calling all New & Early-stage HIV Researchers...
Are you interested in applying for Developmental Core CFAR-series funding in either the Spring (LOI deadline: April 2) or Fall (LOI deadline: October 1) application cycles?
If so, we invite you to join us on Monday, March 26th for our annual CFAR-Series Application Preparation Seminar.
• More Information about the Seminar
• Registration Form (Deadline: Monday, March 19)
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