Cores
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(615) 343-8776
tn-cfar@vumc.org
About the Tennessee CFAR CSC
The Clinical Sciences Core (CSC) supports the mission of the CFAR to reduce the overall burden of HIV/AIDS. Access to people with HIV who can serve as volunteers for prospective research studies is essential for high-quality HIV clinical and translational research. In addition, the CSC provides access to large clinical cohort datasets and a robust biospecimen repository. The CSC is essential for early-stage investigators on their path toward independent extramural funding, which equips the next generation of research scientists while also serving to expand this CFAR’s HIV research portfolio and funding base.
Specific Aims of the CSC
- To support research projects that require access to study participants and associated biological specimens.
- To propel use of observational databases for high impact HIV clinical and translational research.
- To support growing research opportunities for Meharry investigators and to build upon new opportunities with Ending the HIV Epidemic colleagues in Memphis.
The CSC serves all investigators, provides efficiencies for non-clinical investigators, and supports investigators who have not previously focused on HIV infection, as well as more junior investigators. Building upon the foundational partnership between Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Meharry Medical College (MMC), the CFAR has pioneered formal partnerships with the Tennessee Department of Health and Nashville CARES, a sophisticated HIV community-based organization with a considerable research portfolio. The CSC has supported many investigators from and fostered new collaborations between all four partner institutions.
TO SUPPORT RESEARCH PROJECTS THAT REQUIRE ACCESS TO STUDY PARTICIPANTS AND ASSOCIATED BIOLOGICAL SPECIMENS.
Infrastructure to support research involving study volunteers is essential for HIV investigations. The CSC leverages, in part, infrastructure of participant-based HIV research programs used for HIV clinical trials at Vanderbilt to serve CFAR investigators.
TO PROPEL USE OF OBSERVATIONAL DATABASES FOR HIV IMPACT HIV CLINICAL AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH.
The CSC’s highly productive Epidemiology & Outcomes Group supports analyses that extend from local databases (especially the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic) to statewide, national and global databases. The Epidemiology & Outcomes Group has nurtured the careers of many trainees and early-stage investigators across all CFAR partner institutions.
TO SUPPORT GROWING RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES FOR MEHARRY INVESTIGATORS AND TO BUILD UPON NEW OPPORTUNITIES WITH ENDING THE HIV EPIDEMIC (EHE) COLLEAGUES IN MEMPHIS.
The CSC emphasizes team science to grow collaborations between VUMC investigators with investigators at MMC and in Memphis, with a focus on nurturing team leadership by MMC and Memphis investigators. This builds on some success to date promoting clinical research collaborations between VUMC investigators with investigators at MMC and in Memphis, which are generating some of the first ever joint publications in HIV.
Services Offered
- Consult on study design, analysis, and protocol development
- Validated retrospective datasets tailored to investigators’ needs
- REDCap database design for prospective studies
- Data management
- Regulatory and IRB support
- Identification of individuals who are eligible for research according to study-specific criteria
- Recruitment and informed consent
- Study visits with Research Nurses, including specimen collection
- Microbiome specimen collection
- Qualitative interviewing
- Clinical skills such as Freid’s frailty examination, cognitive assessment, venipuncture, oral glucose tolerance testing
- Isolation of peripheral blood mononucleated cells (PBMCs)
- Access to specimen repository
- Monthly study recruitment dashboards for principal investigators (PIs)
CSC Leadership
April Pettit, MD, MPH
Core Director | View Profile Here
David Haas, MD
Associate Core Director | View Profile Here
Vladimir Berthaud, MD, MPH
Associate Core Director | View Profile Here
Timothy Sterling, MD
Director of Epidemiology & Outcomes Group | View Profile Here