About

For the past 30 years, Dr. Cohen has focused on the transmission of STDs including HIV, and strategies for STD and HIV prevention. His laboratory has focused on studies related to the transmission, and prevention of transmission of HIV infection. He has studied HIV in genital secretions and identified inflammatory conditions-especially sexually transmitted diseases that increase the excretion of HIV in semen. His multidisciplinary research group has worked over many years to characterize the ability of different classes of antiretroviral agents to block HIV replication in the male genital tract, as represented by copies of HIV RNA detected in seminal plasma. He has also worked to characterize the relationship(s) between HIV in semen and blood, through detailed molecular phylogenetic analysis. Based on these results he was able to design and lead a multinational NIH clinical trial, HPN 052 that demonstrated that successful antiretroviral treatment of HIV can prevent the sexual transmission of HIV. Currently, he is co-PI of the HIV Prevention Trials Network. Most recently, he has played an active role in the development of COVID-19 prevention activities. He serves on the NIH ACTIV Committee, a public-private partnership to organize COVID-19 research, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the newly formed NIAID COVID Prevention Network (CoVPN). In this capacity, he led research on the use of monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and early treatment of COVID-19. 

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  The Global Fight Against HIV is at Risk

  Hard-won gains in the long-running global HIV epidemic are in danger of being lost, argues Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, MPA, global director of ICAP at Columbia University, in a new commentary published today in Science. Co-authored with Myron S. Cohen, MD, director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of … Read more

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  On World AIDS Day: Cohen Reflects On the History of an Incredible Scientific Achievement 40 Years After the Discovery of HIV

  Almost 40 years after the discovery of HIV, a new NOVA program “Ending HIV in America” reflects on the history of one of the most elusive and deadly viruses to ever infect humans. Dr. Myron “Mike” Cohen, director of the UNC Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases is the architect and principal investigator of … Read more

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  Cohen Featured in NOVA Program “Ending HIV in America” Premiering October 5 at 9 pm on PBS

  (Note: This post has been updated to reflect a schedule change.) Almost 40 years after the discovery of HIV, a new NOVA program “Ending HIV in America” reflects on the history of one of the most elusive and deadly viruses to ever infect humans. Myron “Mike” Cohen, MD, director of the UNC Institute for Global … Read more

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  Bamlanivimab reduces risk of COVID in skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities, study finds

  UNC’s Institute of Global Health and Infectious Diseases Director Myron Cohen, MD, is the lead investigator of a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that shows bamlanivimab monotherapy reduced the incidence of infection in skilled nursing homes and assisted living facilities with high risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure. The randomized phase 3 clinical trial … Read more

Awards and Honors

• North Carolina Award for Science- (2013) 
• Joseph E. Smadel Lectureship Award, Infectious Diseases Society of America- (2013)
• O. Max Gardner Award for Medicine, Microbiology, & Public Health, UNC-Chapel Hill- (2008)
• Distinguished Career Award Lifetime Achievement in STD/HIV Research, American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association- (2005)

Education