Investigators at the UC Davis School of Medicine with their partner the Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory of the California Department of Health Services have formed the California Research Center for the Biology of HIV in Minorities which enhances HIV research at the respective institutions, as well as benefit patients living inside and outside the region. Funding comes from a grant provided by The University of California's Universitywide AIDS Research Program (UARP).

The investigators feel that detailed biologic studies focusing on immunologic and virologic differences in HIV-infected subjects of different ethnicities and in women are important to describe differences that can be used to tailor therapeutic interventions depending on the results.  With the goal of increasing the understanding of such differences, the Center will conduct investigations focusing on ethnic minorities and women. 

The following specific aims will provide the goals of this Center:

• Enroll and monitor two cohorts of ethnic minorities, Hispanics and African Americans, with a cohort of Caucasians into a longitudinal study focused on documenting disease progression and response to therapeutic interventions resulting from standard of care or unrelated treatment clinical trials
• Collect and store specimens to be available for future studies
• Provide the infrastructure and enroll a subset of subject volunteers into the major research project
• Expand enrollment of subjects of various ethnic groups into ongoing research studies

The investigators will accomplish these goals through several infrastructure components.  The Center has five Cores, which emphasize the strengths of the relative institutions.

1. Administrative Core
2. Pilot Projects Core
3. Clinical Core
4. Immunology Core
5. Virology Core

To be added to the Center e-mail list or for information or questions about this Web site, e-mail Julie Calahan.