Friday, November 17, 2023
Major Funding of Partnership for HIV/AIDS Progress (PFAP) Award from the National Institute of Health (NIH) Office of AIDS Research to the Research Initiative on Infectious Disease and Substance Use (RIIS)
The Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) received an annual award for $3 million funded by the NIH Office of AIDS Research. The PFAP award is projected to total approximately $9 million over four years. Principal Investigators are Elana Rosenthal, MD and Sarah Kattakuzhy, MD, MPH.
Monday, July 17, 2023
Researchers from the Institute of Human Virology Discover that a Bacterial Protein Causes Genomic Instability and Contributes to Reduced Fertility, and Birth Defects
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland School of Maryland’s (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology (IHV), a Center of Excellence of the Global Virus Network (GVN), published new findings that emphasize the crucial role of the urinary and genital tract microbiota in adverse pregnancy outcomes and genomic instability that originate in the womb during fetal development.
Thursday, June 22, 2023
STAT: A looming penicillin shortage threatens pregnant adults with syphilis and their newborns
Pfizer announced last week that it expects to run out of a key drug for treating syphilis in the near future — a looming problem that health professionals say could exacerbate syphilis rates, widen racial disparities in sexually transmitted diseases, and stymie global access to the antibiotic, especially within lower-income countries. The drug in question is Bicillin, an injectable, long-acting form of penicillin most commonly used to treat syphilis in adults as well as childhood infections.
Monday, June 19, 2023
University of Maryland, Baltimore Leadership Helps IHV-Nigeria Launch State-of-the-Art Campus in Public Healthcare, Treatment Training, and Research in Nigeria
The Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria (IHV-Nigeria), an affiliate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology (IHV), recently announced the launch of its state-of-the-art multi-campus of excellence in public healthcare, treatment training, and research to bring quality health services within the reach of millions of Nigerians.
Wednesday, June 07, 2023
HealthCare Middle East & Africa: Nigeria’s IHVN unveil their multi-campus in Abuja
The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) has officially opened the doors to its state-of-the-art multi-campus of excellence in public healthcare, treatment training, and research in Abuja. The IHVN campus is a combination of twin tower 7-story office buildings, and clinical laboratories for diagnosis, research, and training. It will also have a functional clinic space for patient care and clinical trials, bio-specimen repositories for storage and management of bio-specimens, multi-media lecture auditoriums, and meeting rooms and offices. The campus unveiling was preceded by a scientific seminar on addressing local health challenges through quality research and partnership.
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Baltimore Sun: New UMD School of Medicine institute aims to change addiction treatment and prevention
As the toll of America’s opioid epidemic continues to mount, the University of Maryland School of Medicine is preparing to open a new institute for addiction medicine, where researchers, substance use disorder specialists and doctors will work together to change the way addiction is treated, prevented and studied.The Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine, which state and health care leaders announced at a press conference Wednesday, will be housed on the sixth floor of the recently opened Health Sciences Research Facility III on the medical school’s downtown Baltimore campus.
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
University of Maryland School of Medicine Receives One of the Largest Gifts in its History to Establish Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine
With an urgent mission to address the alarming rise in drug overdose deaths, the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) has announced plans to open the new Kahlert Institute for Addiction Medicine. It will be funded with a $10 million gift from the Maryland-based Kahlert Foundation with an additional $10 million provided by the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and $5 million from UMSOM to renovate research facilities on campus. UMSOM has committed to raise an additional $5 million in philanthropic donations for the Kahlert Institute.
Monday, May 15, 2023
MPower: MPower Sponsors CUGH 2023 Global Health Conference
University of Maryland’s Strategic Partnership: MPowering the State co-sponsored the 14th annual Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) conference: “Global Health at a Crossroads: Equity, Climate Change, and Microbial Threats” in Washington, DC last month. Held in-person for the first time since 2019, the conference took place from April 14 through April 16. Over the course of those three days, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) faculty, staff, students were among 1,600 participants from around the globe.
Friday, May 05, 2023
Livestrong: Why Terbinafine and Alcohol Don't Mix
If you've ever dealt with a fungal infection in your nails or had a case of athlete's foot, you may be familiar with the medication terbinafine, or the brand name Lamisil. It's an anti-fungal medicine taken orally that treats fungal infections, per the Cleveland Clinic. Adults who are prescribed terbinafine usually take it every day for 6 to 12 weeks to cure an infection, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Thursday, April 27, 2023
Current HIV Research: Milestones: Dr. Robert C. Gallo and the Discovery of HIV-1
In this issue of the journal, we inaugurate a new series entitled “Milestones.” This series will encompass interviews with some of the pioneers that have laid the foundations of HIV research. Revisiting these landmarks while taking into account the prospect of their founders should be an inspiration to our readers, particularly the youngest generation. Nobody better than Dr. Robert Gallo could be the protagonist of the inaugural “Milestone,” with his recount of the discovery of HIV-1, the causative agent of AIDS, and the development of the first blood test to diagnose HIV-1 infection.
Thursday, March 30, 2023
Living Legend Dr. Robert Gallo and His Legacy at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology
Dr. Robert Gallo, MD, is internationally renowned as a co-discoverer of HIV, the cause of AIDS, and as a two-time recipient of the prestigious Albert Lasker Award – a program established in 1945 to honor individuals who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine.
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
Dan Rodricks: What I didn’t know about Dr. Gallo
Until this week, when I looked deeper into his background for my current Sun column, I did not know Dr. Robert Gallo’s origin story as a scientist. It was the death of his six-year-old sister, Judith, when Gallo was a boy in Connecticut, that launched his career in cancer and virus research. He went on to become one of the leading biomedical researchers in the world, the co-discoverer of HIV and a founder of both the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore and the Global Virus Network.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
The Baltimore Sun: Dan Rodricks: Renowned scientist Robert Gallo takes on emeritus role at Baltimore’s Institute of Human Virology
Dr. Robert Gallo, co-discoverer of the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS and one of the world’s most celebrated cancer researchers, has stepped down as director of the Institute of Human Virology that he established in downtown Baltimore 27 years ago. But it’s not like the 86-year-old virologist is retiring.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
Two-Time Lasker Awardee and Internationally Acclaimed Virologist, Robert C. Gallo, MD, To Step Down as Director of UM School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV)
Robert C. Gallo, MD, one of the world’s leading virologists and cancer researchers, announced he has stepped down from his position as Director of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), effective March 24.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Science: Pall of Suspicion
The National Institutes of Health’s “China initiative” has upended hundreds of lives and destroyed scores of academic careers. For decades, Chinese-born U.S. faculty members were applauded for working with colleagues in China, and their universities cited the rich payoff from closer ties to the emerging scientific giant. But those institutions did an about-face after they began to receive emails in late 2018 from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Monday, March 06, 2023
Eradicating Polio Will Require Changing the Current Public Health Strategy
The recent public health emergency declarations in New York and London due to polio infections and detection of the virus in these cities’ wastewater strongly indicate that polio is no longer close to being eradicated. Now, four members of the Global Virus Network (GVN) proposed changes in global polio eradication strategy to get the world back on track to one day eliminating polio’s threat.
Tuesday, February 07, 2023
HIV Treatment and Prevention in Zambian Prisons May be Model for Prisons Worldwide
A recent study performed in Zambia by University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology researchers found that high uptake of HIV preventative medicine, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is possible in prison populations with adequate resources and support from the criminal justice health system.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Institute of Human Virology Director Dr. Robert Gallo Co-Authors STAT Op-Ed with a U.S. Government Call to Action and Road Map for the Future of COVID-19
STAT today published "How the Biden administration’s Covid preparedness policies could narrow America’s political divide" co-authored by leadership of the Global Virus Network (GVN), representing 68 Centers of Excellence and 11 Affiliates in 37 countries, and comprising foremost experts in every class of virus causing disease in humans and some animals. The opinion piece calls on the Biden Administration to “follow the science” in updating COVID-19 preparedness policies to align with the indefinite endemic phase the country is now facing.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
BBC: The scientist who smuggled HIV in her bag into her country to study it and save lives
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS, had been recognized as a new disease in 1981, when an increasing number of young homosexuals died of unusual infections and rare cancers. It was also known to affect intravenous drug users and some were known to have contracted it through blood transfusions.
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Baltimore Banner: Hunt for infectious disease treatments takes on new urgency
When monkeypox cases began spiking in early June, some of those infected and at risk were dismayed that there weren’t proven therapies ready. There was a promising treatment, tested in animals but not humans, for the infections regularly seen in Africa but rarely reported in Europe or North America. The drug was used sparingly before the emergency began abating. But instead of putting the tecovirimat, or TPOXX, back on the shelf, researchers at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere launched a major study to confirm it worked for monekypox, now known as mpox.
Friday, January 06, 2023
USA Today: Fact check: Research proves HIV is the cause of AIDS, contrary to viral claim
The claim: There is no proof HIV is the cause of AIDS. A Dec. 15 Facebook video shows Kary Mullis, a scientist known for denying the link between HIV and AIDS, claiming again there is no proof HIV is the cause of AIDS. The post was shared more than 1,000 times in a week. The clip comes from a 2009 documentary that promoted AIDS denialism, which has more than 300,000 views on YouTube.