News

• Common treatment of TB in advanced HIV patients doesn’t save more lives

  Date: 03/17/2016

  Publication: Medical XPress

  In a report on the so-called REMEMBER (Reducing Early Mortality and Early Morbidity by Empiric Tuberculosis Treatment) study—a 10-nation, randomized clinical trial of adult outpatients—investigators concluded that there was no added benefit of using four drugs for TB over just using one drug, isoniazid, to save lives in people with advanced HIV/AIDS.

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• NIH’s International ACTG Trial Network Names BWI-CTU to Numerous Committees

  Date: 02/19/2016

  Publication: BWI-CTU Announcement

  On February 1, the AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) Network at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases/National Institutes for Health named numerous staff of the Baltimore-Washington-India Clinical Trials Unit to 2016 committee positions. BWI-CTU Co-principal Investigator Dr. Amita Gupta noted that “BWI-CTU clinical site operations have yielded important discoveries in preventing and treating HIV for decades, and CTU staff are highly regarded internationally as experts in the field. We are enormously proud to have the team’s dedicated researchers and regulatory officials recognized for their knowledge and commitment to HIV prevention and treatment globally. ”

   

  Congratulations go to:

   

  Charles W. Flexner, MD, Site Leader 

  Protocol Pharmacologist for ACTG 5258 and ACTG 5336

   

  Amita Gupta, MD, Site Investigator

  Chair, IMPAACT P1078 Co-chair ACTG 5274 Vice-chair ACTG 5279 Co-chair ACTG 5300/IMPAACT 2005 Phoenix preparation study and main trial Vice-chair, IMPAACT TB Scientific Committee Investigator, Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group Member, Clinical Management Committee, IMPAACT PROMISE P1077 Co-Investigator IMPAACT P1026s and IMPAACT P2001 Member, Women’s Health Inter-Network Scientific Committee

   

  Allison Agwu, MD, Site Investigator

  Past Co-chair, Complications Scientific Committee Member Complications Scientific Committee Co-investigator/protocol team member, Maternal and Infant Monitoring for Evidence of Toxicity Related to Tenofovir Exposure: The Bone and Kidney Health Substudy of IMPAACT P1077 PROMISE: Promoting Maternal and Infant Survival Everywhere IMPAACT Representative, WHISC Committee Co-investigator, Biomarkers of Neurodevelopmental and Mental Health Outcomes in Perinatally HIV-Infected or Exposed Children and Adolescents

   

  Adriana Andrade, MD, Site Investigator

  Co-chair, ACTG 5350 Chair, ACTG 5248 Protocol Pharmacologist, ACTG 5241 Member, Neurology and ARTs Committees Member, Clinical Pharmacology Advisory Group Member, Monoclonal Antibodies Working Group, Adherence Working Group, and Microbiome Focus Group Investigator, End-Organ Disease/Inflammation Transformative Science Group (Dec 2015-17) Investigator, Antiretroviral Therapy Strategies Subcommittee (Dec 2015-17)

   

  Ashwin Balagopal, MD

  Chair, ACTG 5335s Investigator ACTG 5329 and ACTG 5334s Investigator, Hepatitis Transformative Science Group, (Feb 2016-Nov 2017)

   

  Todd T. Brown, MD, Site Investigator

  Member, Inflammation TSG Protocol Co-Chair, ACTG 5260s, ACTG 5318 (LEACH) Protocol Vice-Chair, ACTG 5280, ACTG 5303 Co-investigator, ACTG 5257

   

  Richard Chaisson, MD, Site Investigator

  Chair, ACTG Tuberculosis TSG Member, Scientific Agenda Steering Committee (SASC) Chair ACTG 5279 Co-chair ACTG 5344 Protocol Team Member ACTG 5300, ACTG 5312, ACTG 5349

   

  Kelly Dooley, MD, Site Investigator

  Member, ACTG Tuberculosis TSG and IMPAACT TB Scientific Committee Protocol chair, IMPAACT P2005 Protocol co-chair, ACTG 5343, ACTG 5312 Protocol vice chair IMPAACT 2001 Protocol Team Member ACTG 5338, ACTG 5300, IMPAACT 1108 Pharmacologist, Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group (Dec 2015-17)

   

  Christine Durand, MD, Site Investigator

  Member, HIV Reservoirs and Viral Eradication Transformative Science Group Vice-chair, ACTG 5342

   

  Jason Farley, PHD, Site Investigator

  HPTN Site Leader; Investigator of Record HPTN 069 Protocol team co-investigator HPTN 078 Investigator of Record HPTN 078

   

  Nikhil Gupte, PhD, Site Investigator

  Member, Training and Education Subcomittee

   

  Savita Kanade, MSc

  ACTG Outreach and Retention Committee Chair

   

  Vandana Kulkarni, MS, Site Laboratory Manager

  Member TB Lab Core Team Protocol Technologist for IMPAACT 1078, ACTG 5297, ACTG 5288, ACTG 5318, ACTG 5338 Voting member, Laboratory Technologists Committee

   

  Vidya Mave, MD, BJMC Site Leader

  Member, Co-Infections and Malignancies Subcommittee Co-Investigator in IMPAACT 2001, IMPAACT 1073, ACTG 5302 Member, Tuberculosis Transformative Science Group (2014-Nov2016) Member, End-Organ Disease and Inflammation Transformative Science Group (Feb 2016-Nov 2017)

   

  Smita Nimkar, MS, BJMC Site Regulatory Coordinator

  Co-vice chair, Site Management and Clinical Care Committee (SMCCC) (Feb 2016-Nov 2017)

   

  Eric Nuermberger, Investigator

  Investigator, TB Transformative Science Group

   

  Sandesh Patil MD, BJMC OB/GYN Clinical Research Officer

  Vice chair, IMPAACT P2001

   

  Estelle Piwowar-Manning, M.T., Assistant Director HPTN Central Laboratory

  Malaria Diagnostics Working Group of the Lab Steering Committee

   

  Neeta Pradhan, MSc, BJMC Site Laboratory Technologist

  TB Lab Core Team Mentoring Group       Non-Voting Member, Lab Technologist Committee

   

  Vivian Rexroad, PharmD, Pharmacy Services Manager

  Network Pharmacist, IMPAACT Leadership Member, IMPAACT Multidisciplinary Protocol Review Group Protocol team member for IMPAACT 1078, IMPAACT 1114 and IMPAACT 2000 General Member (Pharmacist), Protocol Development and Implementation Subcommittee of the SMCCC (Feb 2016-Nov2017)

   

  Ned Sacktor, MD, Site Investigator

  Member, Neurology Working Group Protocol Chair, ACTG 5235

   

  Sunil Solomon, MD, Site Investigator

  Investigator-at-Large, Hepatitis TSG Investigator, Hepatitis Transformative Science Group (Dec 2015-17)

   

  Mark Sulkowski, MD, Site Investigator

  Vice-chair, Hepatitis TSG Chair ACTG 5329

   

  Nishi Suryavanshi, PhD, BJMC Site Coordinator

  Member, Site Operations Subcommittee International Coordinator, Intensity Scoring Panel Working Group for the Performance Evaluation Member, Cross-Network Site Coordinators Working Group

   

  Andrea B. Weiss, RP, Site Pharmacist

  Member, ACTG Pharmacy Subcommittee

   

  Ilene Wiggins, RN, Research Manager

  Ex-Officio chair, Site Operations Subcommittee Vice Chair, Site Management and Clinical Care Committee Chair, Intensity Scoring Panel Working Group for the Performance Evaluation Committee

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• $7 Million Grant Awarded For Research Into Tropical Diseases​

  Date: 09/11/2015

  Publication: Infectious Disease Advisor

  A $7 million grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded a $7 million grant to Washington University School of Medicine researchers that is aimed at eliminating river blindness and elephantiasis.

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• AIDS Clinical Trials Group Spotlights on Amita Gupta

  Date: 02/19/2015

  Publication: ACTG Spotlight

  The AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Network recognizes researchers and staff actively doing great work.  Spotlight highlights Dr. Gupta’s work in TB research in India.

  Meet Amita Gupta

  As a child, Amita Gupta, MD, witnessed infectious diseases firsthand while visiting extended family in India.

  “I spent summers in India and saw the effects of polio, hepatitis B, tuberculosis and malaria,” she says. “Then when I was in college, I was galvanized by the world of HIV activism. I found myself more and more interested in working on HIV, volunteering at AIDS Action and Fenway Health in Boston. I later worked on HIV/AIDS at the Massachusetts Health Department.”

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• Spotlight on Ilene Wiggins

  Date: 02/19/2015

  Publication: ACTG Spotlight

  Prison inmates. Burn victims. Terminally ill children. These are just a few of the types of patients Ilene Wiggins, RN, has treated during her career as a nurse in Baltimore. Caring for these patients can be emotionally taxing, but Wiggins says she felt it was her calling.

  “I felt I had a gift for making people feel better, not with medication or task, but with caring, compassion and honesty,” Wiggins says. “To make someone smile on what may be one of the worst days of their lives is an accomplishment.”

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• True Fighter for India

  Date: 06/07/2013

  Publication: India Abroad

  Aziz Haniffa profiles Amita Gupta, who is revolutionizing the understanding and treatment of a plethora of deadly diseases.

  An exerpt…

  Despite gargantuan challenges, why is she virtually obsessed with trying to make a difference in India? “India is where my family is from and where I have felt most connected to the people — to the public health needs,” she replied. “India is such a complex and dynamic place where almost every infectious disease in the textbooks exists, so there is so much to learn and so much to be done. It also is a place where there are smart people and opportunities to build infrastructure to study these infectious diseases. There is a clear, compelling public health need. And if solutions can be sought for India that are scalable and cost-effective there, they have great relevance to the rest of the world.”

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