The Johns Hopkins NIMH
Center for Novel Therapeutics of HIV-associated Cognitive Disorders
March 31, 2008

The JHU NIMH Research Center is comprised of an experienced interdisciplinary research team who have pooled their talents to study the nature of HIV-associated cognitive disorders. Their aim is to translate discoveries of the pathophysiological mechanisms into novel therapeutics for HIV-associated dementia (HIV-D).

The principal objective of this Center is to integrate all aspects of ongoing work in HIV and SIV encephalitis, with the existing capabilities and expertise in high-throughput screening and proteomics, to develop new therapies and surrogate markers. We aim to disseminate information and education about HIV-associated cognitive disorders through existing and new educational systems, including the JHU AIDS Education Training Center and the JHU Center for Global Clinical Education. We aim to facilitate the entry of new investigators into Neuro-AIDS research, and to catalyze new areas of research, particularly where relevant for drug discovery or the development of validated surrogate markers.

To achieve our goals, we propose to use the Center to bring experienced HIV/SIV neuroscience researchers at JHU together with investigators who have not previously worked in HIV/AIDS. One of the strengths of the Center is that it builds on, and significantly amplifies, our existing work in HIV-D, cognitive testing, clinical trials, therapeutic development and animal models of SIV encephalitis. All of this work is well established, but has not, to date, been fully integrated together. Newer areas of research, in the development of surrogate markers, in developing medication adherence markers, and in education, will be added to bolster these aspects of interactive research. We firmly believe that this Center, as planned, has the necessary components to lead to the development of adjunctive therapeutic agents for HIV-D, and have placed this as our primary mission.