Project Overview

The NeuroAIDS Program at the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus is supported by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS). Our Program is one of the Specialized Neurosciences Research Programs (SNRP) on Health Disparity regarding HIV and the Nervous System. This proposal was granted as a response to a request for aplication (RFA NS99-007) addresing the nervous system manifestations present in HIV patients and the high incidence of the epidemic in minority populations.

The NeuroAIDS Program of the UPR MSC has two NINDS funded projects and two pilot studies ongoing. These projects are in collaboration with well recognized HIV investigators. These research collaborations offer the opportunity to establish state-of-the-art research projects and strengthen current research at the UPR MSC.

The Medical Sciences Campus (MSC) of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) is one of the constituents of the Research Center in Minority Institutions (RCMI) already involved in clinical and basic research in HIV with established programs dating from the 1980s. Neuroscience research has been identified as one of the target areas for clinical and basic research development given the pre-existing strengths of programs such as the Institute of Neurobiology and more recently the RCMI Clinical Research Center Program (CRC). One of the most important stategies of the CRC program has been the introduction of clinical investigators to basic sciences methods to enhance the competitiveness of clinical proposals. The present NeuroAIDS Program of the UPR-MSC SNRP funded by NINDS provides the ideal instrument to upgrade the level of research in HIV and neuroscience's building on these existing clinical and basic research infrastructures and the collaboration with NIH funded scientists with skills and expertise otherwise not available in Puerto Rico. The success of the NeuroAIDS Program will provide the environment needed to raise the competitive level of neuroscience research at the UPR Medical Sciences Campus.