Meharry HIV/AIDS Research and Training Facility - Project Summary The goal of the proposed HIV/AIDS Research and Training Facility grant is to renovate and develop the a cutting-edge and modern HIV research space at the Meharry Medical College (MMC). Meharry is one of the nation's oldest and largest private, historically Black academic health sciences centers. Since 1876, Meharry has been dedicated in educating healthcare professionals and biomedical scientists with a singular mission of addressing health inequities of underserved populations. For instance, MMC is playing a vital role in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic by spearheading the operations of the testing sites in Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee (TN). MMC also conducted the adult and pediatric clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in minority populations. Importantly, the Meharry Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research (CAHDR), established in 2005 through NIH support, has been a leader in HIV/AIDS research and training of minority scientists, physicians, students, fellows and trainees. The scientific focus of the CAHDR is to identify, understand, and eliminate factors responsible for the profoundly disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS among minority populations. The Center is charged to reduce the burden of AIDS in local minority communities through basic, clinical, and translational research. The HIV/AIDS-focused research environment at MMC has also been facilitated by the Meharry AIDS Center of Excellence clinic at the Meharry Community Wellness Center (MCWC). Both the CAHDR and MCWC are part of the TN Center for AIDS Research (TN-CFAR), a multi-institutional collaborative center involving Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), MMC, the TN Department of Health and Nashville CARES. Additionally, our HIV/AIDS research and training environment is also enriched by our long-standing partnership with VUMC through the Meharry Vanderbilt Alliance (MVA). Therefore, the proposed HIV/AIDS Research and Training Facility will allow us to further leverage our existing partnerships to emerge as a global leader in HIV/AIDS health disparities research and training. Currently, there are only four laboratories that are physically located within the CAHDR and several other HIV/AIDS investigators are housed in other buildings. This physical separation between our HIV/AIDS investigators poses barriers for interaction, training, access, and collaboration. Furthermore, our current lack of modern and cutting-edge laboratory space and facility severely impedes our ability to attract new faculty to the CAHDR. To address these gaps, this proposal outlines the development of cutting-edge HIV/AIDS laboratory facility adjacent to the CAHDR that will include space for four to six new investigators in an open lab space format. Together, this renovation proposal will provide unprecedented opportunity to bring all Meharry HIV/AIDS researchers to the CAHDR Floor and expand our HIV/AIDS research program into cutting-edge new areas. Most importantly, a modern and cutting-edge HIV research space will allow us to prepare and increase the number of underrepresented minority (URM) and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) researchers participating in HIV-focused research.
