Recognizing National Youth HIV/AIDS Awareness Day on April 10

National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD), recognized on April 10th each year, is a day to educate the public about the impact of HIV and AIDS on young people. The day also highlights the advocacy of young people in the U.S. around linking people to services, providing sexual health resources, and HIV education. Campaigns led by youth activists highlight the challenges faced by young people living with and impacted by HIV, offer insight on how they combat stigma and discrimination on local, state, and federal levels, and enhance the awareness among physicians, policymakers, and youth-serving organization staff, etc. about the existing disparities.

Today’s young people are the first generation who have never known a world without HIV and AIDS. The CDC reports that in 2018, youth aged 13 to 24 made up 21% of the 37,832 new HIV diagnoses in the United States (US) and dependent areas. Young people living with HIV are the least likely of any age group to be retained in care and have a suppressed viral load. Addressing the impact of HIV on young people requires they have access to affirming, culturally-competent, and medically accurate resources and tools. Learn more about Advocates for Youth, the founders of NYHAAD and the importance of NYHAAD.

News from the CFAR

CFAR Members present at the Next Generation HIV Vaccines and Therapies Keystone meeting

The Keystone Symposia conference was designed to bring together scientists working in the fields of HIV vaccines and/or the pathway to a cure. The following faculty, trainees, and staff were selected to present their work at the meeting:

Oral presentations

Derek Cain, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, DHVI - Ionizable Lipid Nanoparticles are Potent Adjuvants for Protein-Based HIV Vaccines in Non-Human Primates

James Counts, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, DHVI - Elicitation of CH235-like CD4bs bnAbs via Germline Targeting Immunogens in Rhesus Macaques

Tyler Evangelous, Lab Analyst, DHVI - High-Throughput Screening of Antigen-Reactive B cells in SHIV-infected Rhesus Macaques

Brian Watts, PhD, BIA Core Manager, DHVI - B cells discriminate HIV-1 Envelope Protein Affinities by Sensing Antigen Binding Association Rates

Wilton Williams, PhD, Associate Professor of Surgery, DHVI - Shared Recognition Mechanism for V3-Glycan bnAb Lineage Maturation in Primates

Poster presentations

Brady Hueber, Lab Analyst, CHSI - Perturbations of nutrient transporter profiles and mitochondrial fitness predict NK cell functional failure in lentivirus infections

Stephanie Lundy, PhD, Postdoctoral fellow, DHVI - Induction of HIV-1 Env bnAbs in Pathogenic SHIV-infected Neonatal Macaques

Matthew Mosher, Lab Technician, CHSI - High-dimensional Polychromatic Flow Cytometry Reveals Mucosal-homing as a Putative Biomarker on Natural Killer Cells for Aging in Persons With or Without HIV

Kelly Seaton, PhD, Research Laboratory Manager, CHSI - Pharmacokinetic antibody concentrations of VRC01 correlate with prevention of HIV-1 acquisition (HVTN/HPTN AMP Studies)

Marina Tuyishime, PhD, Senior Research Associate, Surgery - Multivariate Analysis of FcR-mediated NK Cell Functions Identifies Unique Clustering Among Humans and Rhesus Macaques

Ashley Bennett, Dapeng Li, and Charlie Mu were also selected but were unable to attend.

Congratulations on being selected to present your work!

Article highlights DHVI study by CFAR investigators showing mRNA vaccine technology can be used for HIV vaccines

A new article, shared in The Duke Daily newsletter, discusses a recent publication in Cell Reports, where researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) describe an important advancement in what is a complex vaccine development process. The approach uses mRNAs within lipid nanoparticles that are capable of stimulating HIV antibodies.

“This work demonstrates that we now have a practical platform for producing a complex HIV vaccine,” said co-senior author Barton Haynes, M.D., director of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute. “The mRNA technology has been highly successful for COVID-19, and we previously found that it was also effective for a Zika vaccine. But HIV is so much more complicated. This is a major step forward.”

Read more about the important advancement by DHVI and CFAR investigators.

We've extended the deadline for our Community Chair position!

Applications are now due April 6. Know someone who might be a good fit?

Refer them to our application.

An Iterative, Patient-Centered Approach to Tobacco Cessation Program Development

Tuesday, April 5th | 1-2pm ET

Presenter: Sarah Wilson, PhD

Join virtually to attend this national talk through VA Health Services Research and Development, presented by Duke CFAR Investigator Dr. Sadie Wilson.

This presentation focuses on methodology for development of a tobacco cessation program for Veterans living with HIV. The methods that will be reviewed include:

• qualitative analysis of formative patient interviews to inform intervention design
• rapid qualitative analysis of staff and provider interviews to proactively maximize feasibility of the intervention
• Amazon MTurk for crowdsourcing to inform intervention design
• successive cohort design methodology to iteratively improve intervention design.



Register for the session.

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Have something to add to the newsletter? Email Lizzy Knippler at elizabeth.knippler@duke.edu