Current Studies

Transmission Behavior in Partnerships of Newly HIV Infected Southern Californians:

MetroMates Study

This study will measure how transmission risks and partnership dynamics change over time among recently HIV-infected individuals and their partners comparing their behavioral patterns with those with chronic HIV infection and no HIV infection.  It will allow for partnership level analyses by actively recruiting sexual partners. Of special focus will be the role of drug use, especially methamphetamine, in affecting behaviors over time, and how partnership dynamics interact with drug use to allow for HIV transmission.
metromates.bol.ucla.edu

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Completed Studies

Rectal Health, Behaviors and Microbicide Acceptability.

mdp.ctrl.ucla.edu

This project has two studies designed to guide development of rectal microbicides by providing data on anal sex, anal health, and the acceptability of carrier methods for rectal microbicides. The first study will assess rectal health and behaviors among 896 men and women including HIV positive and negative subjects in Los Angeles and Baltimore. The Los Angeles sites include AIDS Research Association and UCLA CARE clinic. Enrollment is open until May, 2009.

The second study is Acceptability of Three Rectal Applicators. This study will be enrolling January-May, 2009 and is being conducted at the UCLA CARE clinic.

In the Pipeline (Barriers to Enrollment in Research Registry for Microbicides Clinical Trials).
In the Pipeline: Rectal Microbicides:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDvSTAkCbfM
Bajo Investigacion: Microbicidas Rectal:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oufqaPO_DY

Project 2 of Network for AIDS Research in Los Angeles (NARLA).
Universitywide AIDS Research Program (UARP).

www.narla.med.ucla.edu

Project Manager: Leonardo Colemon: leocolemon@ucla.edu

This project in collaboration with community partners Friends Research Institute and AIDS Project Los Angeles, is conducting a cohort study of 450 men who have sex with men that will develop educational materials for men about rectal microbicides, assess the best format in which to deliver such information, identify barriers to microbicide trial participation by analyzing factors that facilitate enrollment in a microbicide trials registry, and measure STI and HIV incidence.

HIV/AIDS Risk Behaviors in Methamphetamine User Networks.
Project FLOW:
Los Angeles site of the Sexual Acquisition and Transmission of HIV Cooperative Agreement Program. (NIDA). Co-principal investigator with Dr. Steve Shoptaw in a study of drug using men who have sex with men (MSM), drug using MSM/W, and non drug using MSM and their male and female sexual partners to examine the diffusion of HIV and STDs in drug users in LA to identify the individual-level, partnership-level, and environmental factors that promote the spread of these diseases.

Microbicide Trials Network. Division of AIDS, NIMH, NIH.
www.mtnstopshiv.org/

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The Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), part of the Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation www.mwrif.org with affiliations to Magee-Womens Hospital magee.upmc.com of UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh www.pitt.edu, will be a worldwide collaborative clinical trials network that evaluates the safety and efficacy of microbicides designed to prevent HIV transmission. The mission of the MTN is to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV through the evaluation of microbicide products. The MTN will conduct scientifically rigorous and ethically sound clinical trials that will support licensure of topical microbicide products. The MTN plans to develop and/or execute 15 separate clinical trials of microbicides between 2006 and 2013. Established by the Division of AIDS www.niaid.nih.gov/daids of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in partnership with other collaborating institutes at the National Institute of Health (NIH), the MTN carries out its mission through a strong network of expert scientists and investigators from domestic and international sites.