Cores
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tn-cfar@vumc.org
About the Tennessee CFAR DC
This CFAR envisions the DC as both a magnet and an engine: a magnet that attracts early-stage and established investigators into HIV research, and an engine that provides structure, networking, and mentoring to enable successful extramural NIH grant applications. As will be discussed throughout this proposal, the DC has had considerable impact to date, and has implemented new initiatives to have even greater effects during the next grant cycle.
Since the inception of the Tennessee CFAR in 2015, the DC has pursued 3 complementary aims to support early-stage investigators (ESI) and to fuel new collaborations, focused on: 1) a robust pilot awards program, 2) consistent and effective mentoring, and 3) academic team building. Over the first 4 years of the current grant cycle, 4 of 8 (50%) of the ESI DC awardees without career development grants subsequently received K series awards in HIV research. In addition, several past DC awardees have advanced to CFAR leadership roles, most notably incoming CFAR director John Koethe, who was mentored on his 2015 DC Award by outgoing CFAR director Simon Mallal. DC awardees since 2015 account for ~$9.3M (about one-third) of this CFAR’s 2023 allowable NIH AIDS Funded Research Base (FRB), demonstrating considerable local impact. In the next grant cycle, new initiatives and leadership will invigorate the successful tripartite approach.
The DC is directed by Chandravanu (CV) Dash, PhD, with Co-Directors Timothy Sterling, MD and Jessica Castilho, MD, MPH. Dr. Dash will primarily oversee the DC Awards component. He is Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Meharry Medical College and Executive Director of Meharry’s HIV Research Center. He is PI of three HIV-focused R01s and an R25. He has an extensive track record of mentoring students, fellows and early career faculty, including several now in academic faculty positions. Dr. Sterling will primarily oversee the ESI mentoring component. He is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Vanderbilt
Tuberculosis Center, and has mentored 77 investigators, including 14 who have obtained K23 or K08 awards and 13 who received NIH R funding. Dr. Castilho will primarily oversee the academic skills development and scientific team building component. She is Associate Professor of Medicine and PI of R01 and U01 grants, including the CCASAnet collaborative HIV research network in Latin America. Since 2019, she has mentored 12 Vanderbilt and international trainees, and has been honored at Vanderbilt for excellence in mentorship.
Specific Aims of the DC
to administer a robust DC Awards program that supports pilot interdisciplinary HIV research projects, with a focus on early-stage investigators and established investigators who are new to HIV research.
Our overarching goal is to increase the number of CFAR investigators with NIH-funded HIV research projects. The DC Awards will support meritorious proposals from promising investigators and facilitate the development of these pilot projects into subsequent successful NIH grant applications
To ensure consistent and effective mentoring of investigators new to HIV research, with a focus on early-stage investigators, to enhance competitiveness for extramural funding.
We will provide consistent, proactive, strategic mentoring to ESI both before and after they apply for DC Awards, as well as one-on-one outreach to unfunded applicants to assess adequacy of mentorship and offer advice and advocacy. We will facilitate linkage to the many phenomenal local career development resources and non CFAR funding mechanisms open to Vanderbilt and Meharry faculty, and we will connect mid-career investigators with ESIs to provide guidance on navigating career pathways and build mid-career mentorship skills. Finally, we will expand our administrative support for grant preparation to allow ESI to fully focus on the
science.
To grow the pool of investigators engaged in HIV research and facilitate new strategic collaborations among faculty internal and external to the CFAR and partner institutions, to expand innovative HIV research.
We will continue to emphasize programs that encourage investigators to engage in
HIV research, and we will provide focused participatory research training for all CFAR investigators. We will maintain and strengthen our (a) programs to increase manuscript and grant submission productivity of DC awardees, (b) the annual DC Retreats focused on expert input to increase the success of DC awardees, (c) engagement of ESI who have not yet applied or were not previously successful, and (d) our didactic sessions on practical aspects of managing a successful research portfolio. Lastly, we will grow our emphasis on linking CFAR members with non-CFAR investigators from a broad range of disciplines to develop effective collaborations for the growing number of team science-focused funding opportunities.
Services Offered
- Funding opportunities for early-stage investigators, and for established investigators new to HIV, through pilot awards and supplements
- Mentoring & Career Development – Fostering scientific tam building and skills development through sprint teams
- Training & Education
- Grant Writing & Review
- Consultations
For service request or inquiries, please contact tn-cfar@vumc.org
DC Leadership
Chandravanu Dash, PHD
Core Director | View Profile Here
Jessica Castilho, MD, MPH
Co-Director | View Profile Here
Timothy Sterling, MD
Co-Director | View Profile Here
Developmental Core awardees 2026
Chethan Sampath, PhD
Chethan Sampath, PhD
Researcher
Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences and Research
School of Dentistry
Meharry Medical College
Periodontitis exacerbates systemic inflammation and immune activation in HIV infected patients
Dr. Sampath is a faculty member in the Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences and Research at the School of Dentistry, Meharry Medical College. His research focuses on oral inflammation, host–microbiome interactions, biomarker discovery, and the relationship between oral and systemic diseases. A major area of his current research is understanding how periodontal disease influences HIV-associated immune activation and identifying biomarkers that may help improve disease monitoring and treatment strategies.
He has more than 20 years of multidisciplinary research experience and have contributed to over 30 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Sampath also enjoys collaborating with investigators across disciplines and mentoring students and trainees. Through the CFAR Developmental Core Award, he looks forward to advancing research on periodontal disease and HIV and contributing to translational approaches that can ultimately improve patient care.
Mallory Bryant, MD
Mallory Bryant, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Geriatric Medicine
Department of Medicine
Vanderbilt Health
Using Implementation Science to Guide Development of a Novel Multidisciplinary HIV and Aging Clinic
Mallory Bryant is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt Health. She earned her medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed both an internal medicine residency and a geriatric medicine fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Bryant practices outpatient geriatric primary care, is an attending on the inpatient geriatric consult service, and co-leads a multi-disciplinary HIV and aging service within the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Center.
Joshua Kiyingi, PhD
Joshua Kiyingi, PhD
Staff Scientist
Division of Epidemiology
Department of Medicine
Vanderbilt Health
Exploring the Interplay Between Food Insecurity and HIV Risk Among Commercial Sex Workers in South Africa: An Agent-based Modeling Approach
Joshua Kiyingi, PhD, is a Staff Scientist in the Department of Medicine, Division of Epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. An epidemiologist and biostatistician by training, he studies HIV prevention and treatment, cardiometabolic disease, and the structural conditions that shape these outcomes. His work examines how food insecurity and economic vulnerability drive HIV and chronic disease risk among vulnerable populations, with projects spanning Uganda, Malawi, South Africa, and the United States. He applies agent-based modeling, cost-effectiveness analysis, and multilevel longitudinal methods to randomized trial and surveillance data to identify which interventions work and at what cost.
Katherine Brown, PhD
Mallory Bryant, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Geriatric Medicine
Department of Medicine
Vanderbilt Health
Development of a Language Model-Based Consultation CoPilot to Expand Access to Specialist-Level HIV Clinical Consultation Support in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Dr. Katherine Brown’s current appointment is in Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She recently completed her postdoctoral fellowship as a trainee in the National Library of Medicine (NLM) T15 Training Program. She earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tennessee Technological University, where she specialized in methods for quantifying and interpreting uncertainty in machine learning. Her current research focuses on developing trustworthy AI solutions that improve healthcare delivery in rural and underserved communities. Recognized as an emerging national researcher in AI reliability and performance, Dr. Brown serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
Developmental COre awardees 2025
Ying Dang, PhD
Ying Dang, PhD
Staff ScientistCenter for AIDS Health Disparities Research (CAHDR)
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Physiology
Meharry Medical College
Development of a Novel CRISPR/Cas9 Nickase-based Gene Editing Strategy for Precisely Duplicating Naturally Occurring Human CCR5 Delta 32 Mutants Without Double-Strand Breaks (DSBs).
Dr. Ying Dang is a staff scientist in the RCMI program at Meharry Medical College. He received his molecular virology training at Michigan State University and Texas Tech University. His research centers on developing universally optimized strategies for CRISPR/spCas9 gene editing systems and their in vivo/ ex vivo delivery mechanisms. The gene editing core has helped numbers of investigators on designing and implementing projects based on state-of-the-art gene editing technology. He has also contributed to the identification of key host factors involved in intercellular innate immunity against retroviruses.
One of his notable achievements includes enhancing the structural design of spCas9 sgRNA, which has led to a significant improvement in on-target editing efficiency. Leveraging his expertise, Dr. Dang successfully led a start-up R&D team in conducting an IND-enabling Phase 0 clinical study in China, targeting β-Thalassemia through a lentiviral vector and human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-based ex vivo gene therapy approach.
His long-term goal is to harness cutting-edge gene editing technologies to develop innovative anti-HIV gene therapies capable of preventing or halting disease progression, including the onset of AIDS.
Mallory Bryant, MD
Amanda Lea, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences
Vanderbilt University
Using Implementation Science to Guide Development of a Novel Multidisciplinary HIV and Aging Clinic
Mallory Bryant is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt Health. She earned her medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine and completed both an internal medicine residency and a geriatric medicine fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Bryant practices outpatient geriatric primary care, is an attending on the inpatient geriatric consult service, and co-leads a multi-disciplinary HIV and aging service within the Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Center.