A Grand Day For Rockaway - The Wave
Clinical Infectious Diseases
Clinical Infectious Diseases in a peer-reviewed medical journal published by Oxford University Press covering research on the pathogenesis, clinical investigation, medical microbiology, diagnosis, immune mechanisms, and treatment of diseases caused by infectious agents. It includes articles on antimicrobial resistance, bioterrorism, emerging infections, food safety, hospital epidemiology, and HIV/AIDS. It also features highly focused brief reports, review articles, editorials, commentaries, and supplements. The journal is published on behalf of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Publisher Oxford University Press History 1979-present Website http://www.Oxfordjournals.Org/our_journals/cid/ Impact factor 8.195 (2009)Some content from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
Global Infectious Diseases
To the Division of ID at UAB, Global Infectious Diseases Research brings unique strengths and opportunities. Of important note, multiple ID research faculty live with their families in sub-Saharan Africa, in proximity to research sites. Others formerly lived abroad in Africa for years at a time and are now Birmingham-based. Local clinical and lived experiences create unique opportunities for our trainees to experience health systems, diseases and care and thus ask well-informed questions with meaningful and ongoing input from local stakeholders. Our group supports UAB mentees to spend time abroad as part of their training. We also mentor numerous non-UAB mentees in global ID research. We believe strongly in de-colonization of global health.
Research focus areas in Global ID Research:Broadly we focus on chronic infections of global health importance, including HIV, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis, and comorbidities that complicate clinical outcomes in patients with these infections. We employ a wide range of methodologies including translational science, clinical trials, and increasingly implementation science.
Key Faculty:
Lynn Matthews, M.D., MPH is an Infectious Diseases doctor, UAB Associate Professor of Medicine, and Director of Research and Partnerships for the Mary Heersink Institute of Global Health (MHIGH). Dr. Matthews directs the Global Infectious Diseases Research section for the UAB Division of Infectious Diseases. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of medical and behavioral interventions to reduce HIV incidence in the context of sexual and reproductive health. Since the mid-2000s her research has occurred primarily in South Africa and Uganda, where she lived for periods of time. Since joining UAB as an Associate Professor in 2019 her research has expanded to the U.S. Deep South, including projects on mobile-based HIV testing, understanding HIV risk among Black women, and opportunities to promote HIV PrEP for adolescent girls and young women in Alabama. Her research is funded by multiple grants from the NIH.
Carolyn Bolton-Moore, M.D. Carolyn Bolton-Moore, MD, is a South African physician who has been living and working in Zambia since 2004. Her expertise is in pediatric and adolescent care and treatment, and prevention of mother to child transmission interventions. She has worked on NIH funded and pharmaceutical-funded pediatric clinical research projects since 2002, initially at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit in Johannesburg, South Africa (an NIH IMPAACT and HVTN site) and from 2004 to 2017 at the CIDRZ Clinical Research Site in Lusaka, Zambia. She has been combining pediatric and adolescent research and implementation science within the Zambian public health system for over 15 years. As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Bolton-Moore provides support for a large care and treatment program of over 5,000 adolescent patients and has experience and expertise in treating adults, adolescents, and children. She is a protocol co-chair of IMPAACT P2017, an exciting phase 1/2 clinical trial, the first study to use long acting injectable antiretrovirals in adolescents. She is also PI on an NIH R01 award focusing on improving testing and linkage to care amongst adolescent girls. She has served as a Co-Investigator on the Southern African region of the International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA) network since 2008.
Jodie Dionne, M.D., MSPH is an Infectious Diseases doctor, Chief of Women's Health at the UAB 1917 Clinic (UAB's state-of-the-art HIV clinic in Birmingham), and the Associate Director of Global Health in the UAB Center for Women's Reproductive Health. Based in Birmingham, Dr. Dionne leads clinical trials to identify new ways to treat and prevent infections in women, especially in pregnancy, and teaches and mentors students and trainees working to improve pregnancy infection outcomes. Dr. Dionne's global health research is occurring in Cameroon and Zambia, where she formerly lived, and focuses on syphilis, malaria, and hepatitis B among pregnant women their children.
Renee Heffron, Ph.D., MPH is an Epidemiologist, Professor of Medicine, and the Director for the Center for AIDS Research at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine where she is based. Her research, teaching, and mentoring is dedicated to advancing the field of HIV prevention, often by leveraging intersections with reproductive health. Currently, she has been particularly focused on oral PrEP and utilizing a variety of research methods from clinical epidemiology, implementation science, causal inference, behavioral science, and qualitative research to study effectiveness and optimizing delivery of oral PrEP among young women and HIV serodiscordant couples. Most of her work has been focused on populations in sub-Saharan Africa, including Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa. She previously lived abroad for long stretches of time in Zambia, Belize, and Lesotho. Her approach to her work is grounded in strategies that promote anti-racism and anti-colonialism.
German Henostroza, M.D. is an Infectious Diseases doctor and Professor of Medicine at UAB. He is Peruvian by background, and since 2015 has served as Director of the Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine (https://www.Uab.Edu/medicine/gorgas/), a collaborative initiative between UAB and Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. He is also the Director of William Crawford Gorgas Center for Geographic Medicine. He oversees the Gorgas Scholarship Award that supports international research experience for UAB medical students and residents as well as a pilot grant program for collaborative work with Peruvian and UAB investigators in tropical diseases. His own research primarily focuses on tuberculosis point of care diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutic clinical trials, and health systems implementation in vulnerable populations with emphasis in prisoners. He previously lived full-time in Zambia for 9 years and has active collaborations there as well as in Panama, Peru, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Michael Vinikoor, M.D. is an Infectious Diseases and Medpeds doctor, who splits his time between Zambia and Malawi. He has been embedded with the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) since 2012. His research has 3 foci as follows. His first focus is on hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in sub-Saharan Africa including understanding differences in the natural history compared to other settings, analysis of the immunology of HBV/HIV coinfection, and implementation of public health activities to promote hepatitis elimination. Secondly, he is conducting trials of lay health worker interventions for people with HIV and comorbid behavioral health issues (alcohol use and symptoms of mental illness) in Zambia and Alabama, and is interested in alcohol biomarkers and alcohol translational science. Finally, he is exploring HIV patient care transitions that occur after hospitalization in Zambia and Malawi and how to intervene on high post-discharge mortality using systems-based approaches.
Emily Wong, M.D. is an Infectious Diseases doctor and Assistant Professor of Medicine at UAB whose work focuses on tuberculosis (TB) pathogenesis, immunity and epidemiology, mostly in the context of HIV infection. To address these questions, she uses a range of techniques that span molecular to population science. She has worked and lived in South Africa since 2003 and is embedded at the African Health Research Institute where she has a resident faculty appointment and runs a laboratory. She is also working to establishing unique human cohorts to address fundamental questions about infectious diseases and immune responses. She is also analyzing interactions between infectious and non-infectious chronic diseases in South Africa. Her research is funded by NIH, Wellcome, Burroughs Wellcome, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Ellen Eaton, M.D. is an Infectious Diseases doctor and UAB Associate Professor who works at the intersection of substance use and HIV. Her research includes HIV implementation science around screening and management of substance use in rural Alabama and in Zambia. Her research and patient care centers on infectious consequences of substance use and mental illness. Her lab is developing and testing interventions to link patients to addiction treatment and prevention across the HIV care continuum in both acute care and community-based settings. Ellen is the Director of the Office Based Opioid Treatment Clinic at the 1917 HIV Clinic and a member of the leadership team at UAB's Center for Addiction and Pain Prevention Intervention. She is the Chair of the IDSA Grants for Emerging Investigator's (GERM) Program and a member of the IDSA/HIVMA Opioid Working Group.
Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., MPH, FACP, FIDSA is the C. Glenn Cobbs, M.D. Endowed Professor of Infectious Diseases and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine. She also co-directs the UAB Center for AIDS Research. She co-directed the University of Washington's longstanding T32 in STD/AIDS from 2012-2016, directed by Dr. Sheila Lukehart, and initiated several innovations to that program, including the establishment of a research retreat for T32 trainees and mentoring faculty. Dr. Marrazzo is internationally recognized for her work on biomedical prevention of HIV, management of STI and reproductive infectious diseases, and the vaginal microbiome, with specific expertise in clinical trial design and biomedical interventions. She is PI or Project Investigator on several NIH grants, and of a large international randomized clinical trial funded by NIAID DMID to evaluate the efficacy of a group B meningococcal vaccine in preventing gonorrhea and the contact PI for the recently funded RECOVER award from NIH to study outcomes of long COVID.
Barbara Van Der Pol, Ph.D., MPH is an Infectious Diseases Professor of Medicine trained as a medical laboratory scientist with a Ph.D. In Health Behavior. She is the Director of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine ID STD Clinical Research Organization and ID STD Laboratory. She is presently consulting with the World Health organization on a project designed to set STI research priorities through 2030 and another that is updating the WHO Laboratory Diagnostic Manual. She is also the Chair of the Microbiology Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health/Food and Drug Administration. Her research focuses on healthcare utilization behaviors including vaccine acceptability and implementation research related to adoption of highly sensitive point of care testing in clinical settings. She is working with several developers of STI diagnostic products intended for over-the-counter use in the home and the ramifications of the control and management-shift this will necessitate. She is a co-investigator or a mentor on several studies evaluating sexual healthcare and PrEP service provision to underserved and marginalized populations.
Editorial in Clinical Infectious Diseases: when to treat hepatitis B 
ZAMBAMA uses 'reverse innovation' to tackle HIV and Alcohol 
Award recipients for the Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease program 
Current/Recent Global ID Research Projects – opportunities for trainees: National Institutes of Health: Foundation-funded: Fellowship and Research Training Opportunities: Our Partners in Global Health: For more information, please contact:
Exploring Intersectional Stigmas Among Men Living with HIV in Uganda - The SHINE Study SHINE Team, Mbarara, Uganda June 2022
Back Row L-R: Madeline Pratt, Rosemary Kansiime, Tricia Smith, Moran Owembabazi, Pooia Chitneni, M.D. Front Row L-R: Esther Atukunda, Ph.D. (Project Director), Lynn Matthews, M.D., Eunice Kanini, Johnmary Tumwine, Deogratias Tukwasiibwe
Health Families Clinic Team Mbarara, Uganda June 2018
Hepatits R01 Study Team Training, Lusaka, Zambia
Drs. Michael Vinikoor and Edford Sinkala on World Hepatitis Day, Lusaka, Zambia
Study team meeting for Inpatient Package to Reduce AIDS Death in Zambia (IPADZ). Pictured L to R: Mr. Chiti Bwalya, Ms. Taonga Msuonda, Dr. Edford Sinkala, and Dr. Michael Vinikoor
CIDRZ Research Nurse Anita Mumba performing a 'Fibroscan' to check for liver cirrhosis at University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia
Elizabeth Mupinde from CIDRZ briefing the Kanyama 1st Level Hospital (Lusaka, Zambia) staff on a new research project focused on Alcohol and HIV.
Drs. Lynn Mathews and Mike Vinikoor with Tukiya Kanguya and Carolyn Chibundi Sichela discussing audio assisted computer self-interviews to screen for behavioral health issues in patients with HIV at Matero Level 1 Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia
World Hepatitis Day event, Lusaka, Zambia
Annie Kanunga, Hepatitis-focused research nurse at University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia
UAB and Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) Connections - Emily Wong's AHRI Lab in Durban, South Africa (December 2022)
MatCH Research Unit (MRU) - Investigators Lynn Matthews (front row right) and Jenni Smit (front row second from right) and the "Safer Conception for Women - Understanding use of Periconception PrEP" study team in Durban South Africa (December 2022)
Artificial Intelligence Is Leveling Up The Fight Against Infectious Diseases
Artificial intelligence is a new addition to the infectious disease researcher's toolbox. Yet in merely half a decade, AI has accelerated progress on some of the most urgent issues in medical science and public health. Researchers in this field blend knowledge of life sciences with skill in computation, chemistry and design, satisfying decades-long appeals for interdisciplinary tactics to treat these disorders and stop their spread.
Diseases are "infectious" when they are caused by organisms, including parasites, viruses, bacteria and fungi. People and animals can contract infectious diseases from their environments or food, or through interactions with one another. Some, but not all, are contagious.
Infectious diseases are an intractable global challenge, posing problems that continue to grow in severity even as science has offered a steady pace of solutions. The world continues to become more interconnected, bringing people into new kinds and levels of relation, and the climate crisis is throwing environmental and ecological networks out of balance. Diseases that were once treatable by drugs have become resistant, and new drug discovery is more costly than ever. Uneven resource distribution means that certain parts of the world are perennial hotspots for diseases that others never fear.
Cesar de la Fuente brings an expert eye to how AI has transformed infectious disease research in a piece published in Science with co-authors Felix Wong and James J. Collins from MIT.
Presidential Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science, with additional primary appointments in Psychiatry and Microbiology within the Perelman School of Medicine, de la Fuente brings a multifaceted perspective to his survey of the field.
In the paper, de la Fuente and co-authors assess the progress, limitations and promise of research in AI and infectious diseases in three major areas of inquiry: anti-infective drug discovery, infection biology, and diagnostics for infectious diseases.
Drug discoveryWith sophisticated algorithms and machine learning, AI can analyze vast data sets and identify patterns that would be otherwise imperceptible to human researchers. This data-driven approach expedites the screening and selection of promising drugs, accelerating the development of effective treatments for infectious diseases.
Infection biologyBy analyzing complex biological data, AI algorithms can unravel intricate interactions between infectious organisms and the host immune system. This newfound understanding provides crucial insights into disease mechanisms, transmission dynamics, and host-pathogen interactions, informing the development of targeted interventions and preventive strategies.
DiagnosticsAI-powered technologies have the potential to revolutionize the accuracy and efficiency of diagnostic tools. By leveraging machine learning algorithms, AI can analyze medical imaging, genomic data and clinical records to detect and predict disease outcomes with precision. This transformative capability enables earlier and more accurate diagnoses, facilitating timely treatment interventions and reducing the spread of infectious diseases.
More information: Felix Wong et al, Leveraging artificial intelligence in the fight against infectious diseases, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.Adh1114
Citation: Artificial intelligence is leveling up the fight against infectious diseases (2023, July 31) retrieved 31 July 2023 from https://medicalxpress.Com/news/2023-07-artificial-intelligence-infectious-diseases.Html
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