# Primary Infection Resource Consortium (PIRC)

> **NIH NIH R24** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO · 2021 · $3,380,278

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
HIV incidence is still increasing in the U.S. despite intense efforts to: (i) diagnose HIV infection as early as
possible, (ii) engage newly diagnosed individuals into care and (iii) start antiretroviral therapy (ART) for all
infected persons. The San Diego Primary Infection Resource Consortium (PIRC) has been tackling the
evolving challenges around these issues for twenty years. The PIRC is the largest, most intensively studied
and well-characterized cohort of acute and early HIV infected (AEH) individuals in the United States. It has
provided essential support to over 325 peer-reviewed original research manuscripts, spanning a wide range of
fields, and including many NIH priority areas for HIV research, including: HIV incidence, strategies to improve
HIV testing and entry into prevention services, etc. This application represents a renewal of our PIRC R24
(AI106039) with the proposal to continue this highly productive program, supporting the infrastructure needed
to identify, characterize, and share clinical and biological data with scientific colleagues whose research
objectives rely upon access to these biological samples and data. The proposed R24 renewal application
includes a new collaboration between PIRC and the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Network of Integrated
Clinical Systems (CNICS) to develop an expanded and synergistic resource to serve biomedical research in
the area of AEH. Overall, the PIRC supports: 1) an HIV screening program to detect and stage acute, recent
and chronic infection, 2) partner services to identify sexual contacts of newly HIV diagnosed AEH participants
(i.e., “index” subjects), 3) immediate provision of ART, 4) prompt linkage to care, 5) monitoring of ART
adherence and continued engagement in care, 6) methods to estimate putative HIV transmission and 6) an
AEH biorepository. This entire biorepository and data associated with these well characterized participants are
available to qualified investigators, requiring only internal review and approval of a concept proposal. The
proposed R24 renewal application will address the following Specific Aims: Aim 1. Community HIV Testing
and Acute and Early HIV (AEH) Infection Staging. We propose to identify 120 newly HIV diagnosed persons
per year at the University of California San Diego: 47 AEH infected and 73 chronically infected participants.
Aim 2. Improve Continuum of HIV Prevention and Treatment. We will evaluate temporal changes in the
HIV treatment cascade in response to coordinated efforts to support immediate ART in newly HIV diagnosed
PIRC participants. Subjects identified during AEH will be followed for up to 5 years, while chronically infected
subjects will be followed in clinic for up to 90 days. Aim 3. Shared Resources. We will leverage AEH
specimen and participant resources to support additional NIH research collaborations related to primary HIV
infection. Co-enrollment of AEH participants in CNICS will leverage the clinical monitoring of valid...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10221460
- **Project number:** 5R24AI106039-09
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
- **Principal Investigator:** SUSAN JANET LITTLE
- **Activity code:** R24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $3,380,278
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-08-20 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10221460

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10221460, Primary Infection Resource Consortium (PIRC) (5R24AI106039-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10221460. Licensed CC0.

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