2014 URBAN ARCH Annual Meeting Highlights

URBAN ARCH Annual Meeting – Tuesday, April 1 – Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Hampton Inn – Crosstown, Boston, MA

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The URBAN ARCH Annual meeting, held on April 1-2, 2014, brought together approximately 50 investigators, staff, advisory panel members, and other collaborators to discuss the progress and future direction of the URBAN ARCH Consortium. The two-day meeting began with a welcome and introduction by Dr. Jeffrey Samet, PI of the URBAN ARCH Consortium. Dr. Kendall Bryant, our NIAAA Scientific Collaborator, spoke to the audience about the importance of HIV/alcohol research and aligning future initiatives with the priorities of the Office of AIDS Research. The meeting included open sessions where consortium investigators presented on their project’s status, challenges, and plans for the upcoming year and discussed potential cross-cohort analyses. The presentations served as an opportunity to discuss the science and consider analytic issues. URBAN ARCH site PIs from Uganda and Russia shared their clinical experience of treating patients who are living with HIV and using alcohol, providing meeting attendees with a unique cross-cultural perspective. The URBAN ARCH teams discussed several potential analyses and publications, with a mix of single and multi-cohort ideas. Closed sessions of the meeting allowed the consortium to internally discuss grant renewal and analyses ideas and receive feedback and advice from the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP). The evaluations showed that attendees felt the goals of the meeting were met and that the meeting was a good opportunity to learn about the consortium and network with other investigators in the field of HIV/alcohol research. If you would like access to meeting presentations or related materials, please contact Carly Bridden.

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Pictures (clockwise from the top: Tali Schiller and Michelle Serock; Jeffrey Samet and meeting attendees; Michael Stein and Alex Walley; Kinna Thakarar and Kaku Armah; Laura Vercammen and fellow attendees at lunch; Evgeny Krupitsky and Elena Blokhina)