URBAN ARCH Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 3

July 2014 – September 2014

Check out the current issue of URBAN ARCH News, the quarterly newsletter bringing you news based on the latest URBAN ARCH and related research

Summer 2014 Conferences

For many of us, summer brings sun, time at the beach with friends and family, sports events, and travelling to scientific conferences. If you are lucky you can combine all of the above! This summer, our URBAN ARCH investigators travelled around the country and beyond to present research findings and learn about scientific developments in the fields of HIV and alcohol use.  Conferences are a great venue for sharing study results and networking with a range of individuals working in the field on a national or international level. Highlights of the summer conference season included trips to the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) conference in Bellevue, Washington; the College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD) conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the International AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia. URBAN ARCH researchers presented on a variety of topics using data from our ARCH cohorts and the repository.

Research Society on Alcoholism

The 37th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism meeting took place in Bellevue, Washington on June 21-25.

Rich Saitz presented his Boston ARCH poster “No association detected between alcohol consumption and bone mineral density in HIV infected adults with substance dependence.” This is the first report of research findings from the Boston team. Jeffrey Samet, Judy Hahn, and Evgeny Krupitsky also attended the RSA conference and took advantage of being in the same time zone to talk about the Uganda and Russia ARCH studies and future grant ideas. URBAN ARCH Investigators also met with Kendall Bryant, our NIAAA Scientific Collaborator, and all of the other CHAART investigators (NIAAA HIV – Alcohol Consortium).

College on Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD)

Pictures (l-r): Evgeny Krupitsky and Karsten Lunze; Tetiana Kiriazova; Tetiana and Karsten.

This year the College on Problems of Drug Dependence took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico on June 14-19. Tetiana Kiriazova presented her abstract “Factors associated with study attrition among Russian HIV-infected heavy drinkers”, which was recently published as a paper in HIV Clinical Trials.  This analysis examined HERMITAGE data housed in the URBAN ARCH data repository. Drs. Saitz, Samet, Walley, Krupitsky, and Zvartau also participated in this conference.

International AIDS Conference

The 20th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference was in Melbourne, Australia from July 20-25. URBAN ARCH trainee, Nadia Fairbairn, an internal medicine trainee at University of British Columbia, presented her poster “Mortality in HIV-Infected Substance Users in Russia”, based on data from the HERMITAGE study. Nadia was joined at the meeting by fellow URBAN ARCH members Jeffrey Samet and trainee Kinna Thakarar, an infectious diseases trainee at Boston University. This impressive IAS Conference gathering of researchers, medical professionals, government agencies, and community groups sparked research ideas and future collaborations.

Pictures (l-r): Nadia Fairbairn and Jeffrey Samet; Kinna Thakarar and Jeffrey; Jeffrey and Julia Godunova.

 Spotlight on…Debbie Cheng

In this issue, we interview Debbie Cheng, ScD, Principal Investigator (PI) of the Biostatistics and Data Management Core and Professor of Biostatistics at the Boston University School of Public Health.

On The Ground

Click on the buttons to see what the URBAN ARCH Cohorts and Cores have been working on.

Tips from the Field…

Handling Difficult Blood Draws in Substance-Using Research Populations:

Experience of the Russian ARCH Team

by Tatiana Yaroslavtseva and Anna Kazishvilly

New URBAN ARCH Publications

• Lunze K, Raj A, Cheng DM, Sisson EK, Bridden C, Blokhina E, Walley AY, Krupitsky E, Samet JH. Punitive policing and associated substance use risks among HIV-positive people in Russia who inject drugs. J Int AIDS Soc. 2014 Jul 9;17(1):19043. PMCID: PMC4093768.
• Jain J, Evans JL, Briceño A, Page K, Hahn JA. Comparison of Phosphatidylethanol Results to Self-Reported Alcohol Consumption Among Young Injection Drug Users. Alcohol Alcohol. 2014 Jun 17;49(5):520-4
• Hahn JA, Fatch R, Wanyenze RK, Baveewo S, Kamya MR, Bangsberg DR, Coates TJ. Decreases in self-reported alcohol consumption following HIV counseling and testing at Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. BMC Infect Dis. 2014 Jul 20;14(1):403.

Notices from NIH

• Piloting Modified NIH Biosketches (NOT-OD-14-091) – The NIH has initiated a second round of pilots to assess a planned modification of the NIH Biographical Sketch (Biosketch).

Selected Funding Opportunities

• International Research Collaboration on Alcohol and Alcoholism (U01) (PAR-14-268)
• National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): Standard dates apply.
• Multidisciplinary Studies of HIV and Viral Hepatitis Co-Infection (R01) (PAR-14-255) (R21) (PAR-14-254)
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Application Receipt/Submission Date(s): May 07, 2017
• Extracellular Vesicles in HIV/AIDS and Substance Abuse (R01) (RFA-DA-15-011) (R21) (RFA-DA-15-012)
• National Institute on Drug Abuse Application Receipt Date(s): December 15, 2014

Click here for more funding announcements related to HIV and alcohol research.

Upcoming Events and Conferences

Please email Carly Bridden if you will be attending or presenting at any these meetings.

• United States Conference on AIDS
  October 2-5, 2014; San Diego, California
• Addiction Health Services Research (AHSR) Conference
  October 15-17, 2014; Boston, Massachusetts
• Conference On Retroviruses & Opportunistic Infections
  February 23-26, 2015; Seattle, Washington

Click here for more upcoming events and conferences.

Featured Resources

• Alcohol Research: Current Reviews — http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/journals-and-reports/alcohol-research.
• NIH Research Integrity — http://grants.nih.gov/grants/research_integrity/index.htm.
• Global Health TV. Global Health TV enables health organizations and the global health community around the world to share the work they are doing to address complex global health problems with a diverse audience made up of health-care professionals, health foundations, businesses, government agencies, academic institutes and interested parties.

Archived Issues

For more information or to be removed from this list, please contact: Carly Bridden, URBAN ARCH Administrative Director.

U24AA020778 × U24AA020779 × U01AA020776 × U01AA020780 × U01AA021989 × U01AA020784