# Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2024 · $1,735,545

## Abstract

Overview Abstract/Summary
The overarching theme of the Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center (PMHARC) at the University of
Pennsylvania (Penn), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and Wistar Institute (Wistar) is to transform
how individuals with comorbid mental illness/AIDS are treated and managed by developing innovative,
interdisciplinary, and integrative approaches to optimize psychiatric, behavioral, and medical outcomes and
achieving a better understanding of the biological, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying these
combined illnesses and treatments. No other center in the U.S. is currently pursuing this explicit focus, making
PMHARC unique in the NIMH ARC portfolio. A substantial body of work links psychiatric disorders to
acquisition of HIV infection, accelerated immune dysfunction, poor access to HIV care, and poor adherence to
antiretroviral treatment once in care. Yet, there remains a relative paucity of evidence-based interventions
focused on the combined treatment of mental illness/HIV and related medical co-morbidities, and relatively little
work in determining the relationships between mental health treatment and HIV disease and understanding the
underlying biology. PMHARC will continue to stimulate novel approaches and strategies to address these
problems by providing mentoring and resource support for both new and established investigators choosing
to study comorbid mental illness/HIV, in part through innovative pilot studies. PMHARC's leadership has
extensive expertise in contemporary pharmacotherapy of mental illness and HIV, cognitive behavioral
treatments, and theory-based behavioral interventions. PMHARC will extend well-established collaborations at
Penn, CHOP, and Wistar including those in the Department of Psychiatry and the CFAR, as well as with the
CTSA/CTRC, the Delaney Collaboratory, and community partners in Philadelphia. A unique feature of
PMHARC is the collaboration of well established mental health/HIV researchers, well-established mental
health researchers who have not previously studied HIV, well-established substance use/HIV researchers who
have not previously studied mental health, and HIV researchers not previously focused on mental health.
PMHARC has an Administrative and Developmental Core, and four Shared Resource Cores.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10808136
- **Project number:** 5P30MH097488-12
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Kelly L Jordan-Sciutto
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,735,545
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2013-06-03 → 2028-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10808136

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10808136, Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center (5P30MH097488-12). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10808136. Licensed CC0.

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