Projects

The 9th  Annual Graduate and Professional School Fair, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), took place on July 14th at the Bethesda, Maryland campus. The all-day event included plenary sessions about a variety of graduate degrees and careers including biotechnology, psychology, medicine, and public health. A range of admissions workshops, socials, and information sessions filled the day with a wide range of opportunities. In addition to the organized sessions, well over 100 graduate programs from diverse universities were present with booths, information, and representatives. In between plenary sessions, the representatives of each program and university offered program specific information, as well as a point of contact for interested students to engage in more in depth conversations while making key decisions about which programs to apply. Although the fair was held specifically for interns with NIH, any interested student was welcome to attend. Both of us: Victoria Mason, an undergraduate intern from George Mason, and Megan McIntosh, a graduate intern from UC Berkeley attended the fair. Below we offer each of our perspectives on how the graduate and professional fair benefited us below.

On Tuesday, June 14 and Wednesday, June 15, I had the opportunity to attend The HIV Prevention Trials Network 2016 Annual Meeting in Arlington, VA. The HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) is a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that brings together investigators, ethicists, community and other partners to develop and test the safety and efficacy of interventions designed to prevent the acquisition and transmission of HIV. I attended a number of plenary sessions that brought the research, challenges, and risks that surround preventing and treating HIV to my immediate attention. The first plenary session that I attended was a modelling plenary moderated by Dr. Deborah Donnell. Dr. Donnell is a principal investigator of the Statistical and Data Management Center for the HPTN. She also oversees statistical design and analysis as well as data management operations of the Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention. She is also a Principal Staff Scientist in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division, Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center and an affiliate associate professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Global Health. Overall, I enjoyed this session because it provided me with an understanding of how studies are designed and conducted in order to estimate the impact of interventions and how populations at risk are affected.

On Tuesday, June 14, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the HPTN/IMPAACT annual meeting in Arlington, Virginia. The conference offered various plenary sessions to discuss the many facets of HIV prevention and management. 

The HPTN Modelling Plenary was moderated by Dr. Deborah Donnell, and featured Drs. Marie-Claude Boily (the leader of the HPTN Modelling Center), Kate Mitchell, and Dobromir Dimitrov as speakers. Speakers discussed the application of mathematical modelling in evaluating the long term impacts of potential interventions. For example, the HPTN 078 study assessed linkage to care of men who have sex with men (MSM) in the cities of Baltimore, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Boston. Mathematical modelling was utilized in the early stages for protocol design, during the study for model development and data analysis, and in the aftermath to predict the final impact of the interventions on HIV incidence. I found the breadth of data that the Center used astounding; hundreds of variables were taken into account when making predictions. This really allowed the researchers to make judgements based on data received at the individual level, personalizing the prevention process and tailoring the outcomes to the patient. 

On May 20, 2016, my second day as an intern with the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, I attended a plenary session of the Full Group Meeting of HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN). The session I attended was entitled, “Community Engagement and Advocacy: How do they intersect?” The session was moderated by Susan Buchbinder of HVTN/Bridge HIV and involved a panel of multinational representatives with different roles within HVTN: a Community Advisory Board (CAB) member, an Investigator of Record, a Community Educator and Recruiter (CER), as well as a representative of AVAC: Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention, and the Director of External Relations at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that hosts the HVTN. In addition, the plenary session reserved time for members of the audience to engage in furthering the conversation, contributing to the involvement of additional perspectives.

This interdisciplinary course reviews the history, authorizing statute and regulatory authority of US Food and Drug Administration (the most influential public health and scientific regulatory agency worldwide, overseeing more than 25% of the US economy).

On August 4, 2015, the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research hosted the third-annual Washington Area Interns Networking Day 2015.  Leading experts from government and advocacy organizations in HIV/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis gathered for a panel discussion in which they provided career advice and shared their personal experiences navigating the fields of Public Health and Public Policy at the UCDC Washington Center on 1608 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Washington DC 20036.  Highlights from this session are included below.