CSCC awarded NIH funding to improve health and well-being of young adults at risk for HIV/AIDS

September 26, 2016

The Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center (CSCC), housed in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics, has been awarded funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to serve as the coordinating center for the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN), a research network devoted to the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults with HIV or at risk for HIV infection.

Dr. Michael Hudgens

Dr. Myra Carpenter

In addition to the CSCC funding, the funding for the ATN, which will be up to $24 million in 2016, establishes three research hubs across the United States, one of which includes researchers at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The ATN Coordinating Center, led by co-principal investigators Myra A. Carpenter, PhD, senior investigator at the CSCC, and Michael Hudgens, PhD, professor of biostatistics at the UNC Gillings School, will serve as the central resource for network communications and research operations including cataloging of biosamples, data management and statistical analysis.

“I am excited to be expanding the CSCC’s research portfolio to include the ATN,” said Carpenter. “Our work in the ATN is a perfect match with our center’s mission to improve public health by coordinating important health research, developing innovative research methodology, and providing practical training in the application of research methods.”

ATN aims to obtain care for at-risk youth, while at the same time offering them opportunity to participate in research trials that have potential to improve their health and the health of others. The newly funded ATN centers will conduct studies aimed at preventing HIV infection among youths. They also will seek to enroll HIV-infected youths into treatment studies to improve their health and reduce their chances of spreading the virus.

To achieve these goals, the CSCC will provide innovative, forward-looking and productive services that bring cohesion to the participating investigators by sharing their visions and providing scientific leadership, organizational support and analytic results for ATN projects.

Key elements that will enhance collaboration and research progress include experienced leadership, innovative design and analysis methodologies, comprehensive research operations support, a state-of-the-art data management system and superior administrative support. The CSCC’s integrated structure will set the stage for collaboration and extraordinary research productivity from protocol development through research data sharing.

ATN is funded by the NIH through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development with supplemental funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

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Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: David Pesci, director of communications, (919) 962-2600 or dpesci@unc.edu