For the last 23 years, the Collegiate Inventors Competition has recognized and honored student inventors whose inventions one day could make significant contributions to society. The competition is sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation, Abbott, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This year, more than $65,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winning undergraduate and graduate students and their advisors.

All finalists in the competition will receive an all-expense paid trip to the final judging round taking place in Washington, DC and the opportunity to have their work reviewed by inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Seth Congdon will work on rotavirus vaccine in Zambia

Cramer McCullen will work on HIV in Guatemala.

Awardees Cramer McCullen and Seth Congdon, both rising second-year medical students, will spend the summer working on infectious disease problems in Guatemala and Zambia, respectively.

McCullen will work with the Central American Regional Office of the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention in Guatemala on HIV. McCullen’s project will have both a clinical research and educational development component. Specifically, he will be collaborating with the CDC to develop a manual for health care providers to improve HIV prevention and treatment programs focused on men who have sex with men and sex workers.

In addition, McCullen will work with local community workers to analyze data gathered over the past five years from a cohort of 6,000 HIV-infected men who have sex with men.

At UNC, McCullen will be mentored by Clare Barrington, assistant professor of health behavior in the Gillings School of Global Public Health and Latin America Programs Manager of the Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases.  Dr. Marilu Itzel Loya, the in-country director for the CDC, and others will mentor McCullen in Guatemala.

Congdon will work with a key UNC partner, the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia in Lusaka, Zambia, to study factors impacting the efficacy of rotavirus vaccination. Rotavirus is the leading cause of diarrheal-related death in babies worldwide, and Zambia has recently begun a rotavirus vaccination campaign.

Congdon’s project will hopefully help us understand why the vaccine has not be as effective in sub-Saharan Africa as it has been in other countries, a phenomenon which is not well understood. His work will look at the impact of immune and nutritional factors, as well as the mother’s HIV status on the vaccine.

Congdon will be mentored by Dr. Roma Chilengi in Zambia and by Irving Hoffman, associate professor of medicine, at UNC.

An important part of IDSA’s mission is to promote the subspecialty of infectious diseases among the best and brightest medical students. To further this goal, the IDSA Education and Research Foundation offers scholarships to medical students in U.S. medical schools with mentorship by an IDSA member or fellow.

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Contact: Lisa Chensvold, 919-843-5719 or lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu

Description: Ian Glomski is an Assistant Professor of Microbiology at University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. He received his PhD from University of California, Berkeley. Glomski’s research aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of B. anthracis pathogenesis and use this knowledge to guide research towards better means of detection and prevention of anthrax.

About Friday ID Conference

The Division of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, and Center for AIDS Research at UNC co-sponsor a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities, and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines.

The conference takes place every Friday, September through June, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, or to suggest a speaker, please contact the conference coordinator,Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.

The purpose of these awards is to provide seed money for new ideas in HIV research that will eventually lead to applications for outside independent funding. The success of the UNC CFAR will be based on the number of subsequent grants that our Developmental Awardees eventually receive.

Applications will be judged on: Significance, Innovation of Idea, Approach, ability of investigator to carry out award, and the prospect of successfully applying for further funding. Proposals from female and minority investigators will be given special consideration in the review process.

See the CFAR Developmental Core webpage for the complete RFP.

For eligibility and application guidance, please visit the UNC-CH Center For AIDS Research website, or email Cathy Emrick at cathy@unc.edu.

Description: Dr. Horton is the chair contact for the Standards and Practice Guidelines Committee at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). He is the chief of the Infectious Disease Division at the Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC, as well as a clinical assistant professor of infectious diseases at the UNC School of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Duke Medical School.

About Friday ID Conference

The Division of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, and Center for AIDS Research at UNC co-sponsor a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities, and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines.

The conference takes place every Friday, September through June, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, or to suggest a speaker, please contact the conference coordinator, Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.

Description: The UNC-NIH AIDS and STD Training Program has been running continuously for three decades and provides trainees with research opportunities in the broad area of AIDS and STDs. Training includes basic and epidemiologic research. The program is led by Bill Miller, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at UNC. This is the second part of a series of presentations given by trainees of the program.

Speakers will include trainees Veronica Escamilla, Kate Muessig, and Michael Herce.

About Friday ID Conference

The Division of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, and Center for AIDS Research at UNC co-sponsor a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities, and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines.

The conference takes place every Friday, September through June, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, or to suggest a speaker, please contact the conference coordinator,Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.

Description: Dr. Joseph “Alex” Duncan, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, received his medical training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and completed his residency and infectious disease fellowship training at UNC-Chapel Hill. His research currently focuses on innate immune system signaling, which gives the body the ability to recognize pathogens and initiate inflammatory and immunologic processes to control their spread.

About Friday ID Conference

The Division of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, and Center for AIDS Research at UNC co-sponsor a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities, and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines.

The conference takes place every Friday, September through June, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, or to suggest a speaker, please contact the conference coordinator,Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.

Description: The UNC-NIH AIDS and STD Training Program has been running continuously for three decades and provides trainees with research opportunities in the broad area of AIDS and STDs. Training includes basic and epidemiologic research. The program is led by Bill Miller, MD, MPH, professor of medicine at UNC.

Speakers will include trainees Kara Jensen, Laura Widman, and Liz Yanik.

About Friday ID Conference

The Division of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, and Center for AIDS Research at UNC co-sponsor a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities, and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines.

The conference takes place every Friday, September through June, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, or to suggest a speaker, please contact the conference coordinator,Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.

HIV Care in 2013: Trends in Clinical Care and Caring for Vulnerable Populations will be held at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  The theme of this year’s symposium is “Engagement in HIV Care.”

Although 80 percent of the estimated 1.1 million people infected with HIV in the United States are diagnosed, only 66 percent are in care and just over half are retained in care. Getting people living with HIV to commit to long-term medical treatment is one of the greatest challenges to treating HIV patients and is a fundamental component of the White House National HIV/AIDS Strategy.

“We must do a better job of finding people infected with HIV, getting them in care and keeping them in care,” said Dr. David Wohl, director of the UNC-based North Carolina AIDS Training and Education Center and one of the conference organizers. “This not only helps them, but it also prevents them from infecting others,” Wohl said. Recent research pioneered at UNC showed that treatment with antiviral therapy can reduce sexual transmission of HIV by at least 96 percent.

The event will feature two tracks: medical and social.  The medical track will focus on treatment strategies for HIV and related conditions, and the social track will tackle the management of substance abuse and mental health disorders and include a panel discussion with women living with the virus.  Both tracks will include discussions on engagement and retention in HIV care.

Last year, more than 430 people from a variety of disciplines and specialties attended the update, and attendance is expected to increase this year.

“We are a multidisciplinary group. We draw a variety of people. The symposium is open to anyone across the state, and it’s a great way to bring cutting-edge updates to health care providers who might not get that information otherwise,” said Dr. Heidi Swygard, associate professor of medicine at UNC and the event’s main organizer.

Registration is required and attendees will receive continuing education credit. The North Carolina AIDS Training and Education Center, the Greensboro AHEC and The University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy jointly sponsor the event in partnership with the Division of Infectious Diseases in the UNC School of Medicine.

For more information or to register,  visit http://www.gahec.org/eventdetail.asp?EventID=39540  or call 336-832-8025.

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Media contact: Lisa Chensvold, (919) 843-5719 or lisa_chensvold@med.unc.edu

Description: Dr. Inrig is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences Division of Outcomes and Health Services Research at UT Southwestern. He is a member of the Harold C. Simmons Cancer Center, a Clinical Research Scholar in UT Southwestern’s Center for Translational Research (formerly UT-STAR), co-director of the rotation program on health care financing and policy, and also serves as an Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Texas at Dallas School of Management.

Dr. Inrig studies the intersection of health policy and the social determinants of health among vulnerable populations. His research has focused on HIV in the American South as well as Global Health governance. He is presently conducting work on delivery of care in Safety Net institutions in North Texas, giving particular attention to HIV, Breast Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, and Maternal-Fetal Health.

Dr. Inrig hails from Canada. He spent many years running programs for youth, especially at-risk youth, in Illinois, California, and North Carolina. He received his PhD from Duke University and lives with his wife, a nephrologist, and three children in Dallas.

Dr. Inrig will also be giving another presentation, “North Carolina’s HIV epidemic in historical context,” on Thursday, April 18 at 5:30 p.m. in the UNC Health Sciences Library, 5th floor conference room (#527). This lecture is co-sponsored by the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases and is part of the Bullitt History of Medicine Club Lecture Series.

About Friday ID Conference

The Division of Infectious Diseases, Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases, and Center for AIDS Research at UNC co-sponsor a weekly conference series which features distinguished clinicians and scientists from UNC, local universities, and other national and international institutions. The topics are varied and appeal to not only infectious disease specialists, but also professionals in epidemiology, public health, microbiology, biostatistics and other global health-related disciplines.

The conference takes place every Friday, September through June, from 8:30-9:30 a.m. in 1131 Bioinformatics (first floor auditorium) on the UNC campus. For more information, or to suggest a speaker, please contact the conference coordinator, Kathy James. To sign-up to receive weekly announcements of the conference, click here.