| Posted on January 15, 2004 at 3:36 p.m. | ||
| WHAT: | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson will visit UAB’s 1917 Outpatient AIDS Clinic and meet with administrators, faculty, researchers and patients. Specifically, the Secretary will be briefed on patient care, UAB’s community outreach programs and research. Secretary Thompson also will tour Dr. Beatrice Hahn’s laboratories in the Hugh Kaul Human Genetics Building. The Secretary’s visit to the 1917 Clinic is closed to the media. However, news media are invited to accompany Secretary Thompson as he tours the Kaul Building. No questions will be allowed during the tour. After the tour, Secretary Thompson will be available for questions in the atrium of the Kaul Building. | |
| WHEN: | Friday, January 16, 2004 | |
| WHERE: | Hugh Kaul Human Genetics Building, 720 20th Street South (directly across from the UAB Administration building). Meet UAB Media Relations in the atrium on the second floor. | |
| WHY: | UAB’s Center for AIDS Research is internationally known for its strengths in AIDS outpatient care, research, and vaccine development (See our fact sheet on the 1917 Clinic for more detailed information). Secretary Thompson’s visit is intended to help him assess the progress and obstacles in the domestic battle against HIV and AIDS. | |
FACT SHEET: UAB CENTER FOR AIDS RESEARCH
- The University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) is one of the seven original Centers, established in 1988 by the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to stimulate research and scientific advancement concerning AIDS and HIV. The CFAR program was expanded in 1998 and currently includes 19 centers.
- The UAB CFAR has played a pivotal role in stimulating and supporting research in both the basic and clinical sciences. The growth of the CFAR is reflected in the increase in total research funding from $2.9 million dollars in 1988 to more than $67 million today. In addition to the research and clinical programs, other funded units within the Center are the AIDS Clinical Trials Unit and the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic, which have provided critical new insights into the treatment of HIV/AIDS and novel information on potential vaccines.
- In 1999, a team of UAB researchers led by Dr. Beatrice Hahn discovered the origin of HIV-1.
- The UAB center was the first in the world to perform clinical trails of the protease inhibitor Indivar, now the most commonly used protease inhibitor.
- In 1996, UAB researchers showed, for the first time, that the AIDS virus replicates early and aggressively soon after a person is infected with HIV. That discovery changed the way clinicians treat HIV infection.
- UAB investigators were the first to demonstrate the value of viral load testing in clinical practice. This test allows physicians to follow the response to antiretroviral treatment, much as they follow the blood-sugar response to insulin when treating diabetics.
- UAB first produced clinical guidelines for the use of viral load in clinical practice. It was also the first to establish proof of concept demonstrating potent antiretroviral activity of a fusion inhibitor, T-20.
- UAB researchers provided the first description of the HIV quasispecies in chronically infected patients. By performing molecular analyses of serial isolates obtained from a single patient, multiple highly related, yet genetically distinct viral variants were shown to coexist and evolve over time.