URBAN ARCH at RSA 2023
The 46th Annual Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) Scientific Meeting will take place later this month, from June 24th-28th, in Bellevue, Washington. Several URBAN ARCH investigators and affiliates will attend. Here we will highlight a few opportunities to connect with URBAN ARCH at RSA 2023.
Prior to the official opening of the meeting, META HIV CVD, a 2nd-generation URBAN ARCH HIV/Alcohol P01 Center, will host an alcohol and HIV satellite meeting on Saturday, June 24th, from 9am-5pm. The satellite meeting will feature presentations from several other HIV/alcohol research groups, including URBAN ARCH, ARCHER, SHARC, HARP, and others. Please click here to view an informational flyer for the satellite meeting. As part of the satellite meeting, the International URBAN ARCH Center will be organizing one-on-one mentoring sessions between early stage investigators and senior researchers.
Additionally, senior URBAN ARCH investigator and TRAC project lead, Dr. Judy Hahn will host a symposium as a part of the Biomarkers Users Group (BUGs). BUGs is a group of alcohol biomarker and biosensor experts who will present their experiences using alcohol biomarkers in research during the symposium. The symposium is entitled “Using alcohol biomarkers in alcohol intervention research: everything you wanted to know about alcohol biomarkers (mostly PEth) but were afraid to ask” and will take place on Sunday, June 25th at 1:20pm in Grand G. Click here or email Judy Hahn for more information about the symposium.
Several presentations during the meeting will highlight the work of URBAN ARCH investigators and trainees. During the poster session on Sunday, June 25th, Dr. Judith Tsui will present a poster entitled “Pilot RCT comparing low-dose naltrexone, gabapentin, and placebo to reduce pain among people with HIV with alcohol problems.” The poster focuses on the findings of the Pilot Study of an Opioid-receptor Antagonist and Gabapentin to Reduce Pain and Inflammation among HIV-Infected Persons with Alcohol Problems (PETER PAIN) study, which compared the effects of low-dose naltrexone and gabapentin to placebo among a cohort of people with HIV (PWH) with heavy alcohol use and chronic pain.
Senior URBAN ARCH investigator and TALC project lead, Dr. Kaku So-Armah will present two posters during Sunday’s poster session. The posters, entitled “Alcohol-interactive medications, current alcohol use based on phosphatidylethanol, and mortality among people with and without HIV,” and “HIV status and age do not alter the association between alcohol and naïve or senescent CD4 and CD8+ T-cell subsets,” will highlight data from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study (VACS).
URBAN ARCH will also make an appearance during Tuesday’s poster session, where Dr. Amanda Miller will present her work with URBAN ARCH investigators in Uganda. Amanda’s poster, “IPV among HIV/TB co-infected persons with unhealthy alcohol use in Uganda: A qualitative study of an incentive-based alcohol/medication adherence intervention,” will feature data from the Drinkers’ Intervention to Prevent Tuberculosis (DIPT) study. Amanda is also part of the International URBAN ARCH Training & Mentoring program and was interviewed for the last issue of the URBAN ARCH Newsletter, which you can read here.
At Wednesday’s poster session, Aakarsha Rao, a PhD candidate at the University of Louisville, will present a poster entitled “Sex differences in butyrate producing bacterial community & pathobionts in the gut microbiome of people with HIV (PWH) with heavy alcohol use.” This work was developed in collaboration with URBAN ARCH investigators using data from the St PETER HIV Alcohol-associated Comorbidities and Microbiome Evaluation Study (ACME) study, which examined alcohol-associated dysbiosis in a cohort of PWH with alcohol use.
We look forward to seeing you in Bellevue!