# Multidisciplinary NeuroAIDS Research and Training Program to Improve HIV Outcomes in Nigeria and Africa

> **NIH NIH D43** · NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $293,071

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
HIV-related brain disorders (NeuroAIDS), including mental health, neurocognitive, and neurological problems,
remain common globally. Over the past 10 years, the Multidisciplinary NeuroAIDS Research and Training
Program to Improve HIV Outcomes has developed new NeuroAIDS research capacity at the University of
Ibadan, Nigeria (UI) in three interacting cores: the Mental Health Core, Translational and Clinical Sciences
Core, and the Neuropsychological Infrastructure Core. Our overarching goal in the next 5 years is to bridge the
residual gaps necessary for UI to become a Center of Excellence for NeuroAIDS Research, not only for Nigeria
but for Africa. This will require 1) developing UI’s capacity in two previously unaddressed NeuroAIDS research
areas of high public health significance, 2) increasing the local mass of externally-funded NeuroAIDS
researchers and mentors, and 3) continuing the progressive transfer of the program’s leadership to UI. The
strategic approach capitalizes on the momentum from our NICHD-funded research, iCARE Nigeria
(UG3/UH3HD096920; MPIs: Babafemi Taiwo and Robert Garofalo), through which we have built trust with
Nigeria’s stigmatized and criminalized sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. We will also leverage
previously untapped, outstanding mental health and stroke research resources at UI. Specific aims have been
articulated. Aim 1a is focused on SGM mental health. Here, we will add new trainees to the existing Mental
Health Core and develop expertise in mental health research and biobehavioral interventions and strategies to
improve the health outcomes of SGM living with and at risk for HIV. Training will span clinical, epidemiological,
socio-behavioral, network, and implementation science. We will enroll 2 postdoctoral faculty members
(physicians or PhDs) per year, mainly from psychiatry or medical social science into customized 2-year
curricula that include tailored didactics, skill building, and mentored research. In Aim 1b, we will tackle stroke in
people living with HIV (PLWH) by adding new trainees to the Clinical and Translational Sciences Core to
unravel the local epidemiology, mechanisms, and interventions for stroke among PLWH. One postdoctoral
faculty per year will be enrolled from neurology, medicine, radiology, or other fields into customized 2-year
curricula as in Aim 1a. Aim 2 is to develop more NeuroAIDS leaders in UI from the best early-career
investigators among those we have trained previously AND by attracting established investigators from other
fields to NeuroAIDS. Here, we will implement “Extended Protected Time” for two competitively selected
previous trainees per year and an innovative “Mentor the Mentor” initiative. In Aim 3, we will advance our
commitment to transfer program ownership and management to UI. Thus, we will implement an MPI structure
with UI co-leadership and new Ibadan NeuroAIDS Grant Writers Coaching Groups. Finally, UI will lead a
regional NeuroA...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10912192
- **Project number:** 2D43TW009608-11
- **Recipient organization:** NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** PHILIP B GORELICK
- **Activity code:** D43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $293,071
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2013-08-05 → 2028-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10912192

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10912192, Multidisciplinary NeuroAIDS Research and Training Program to Improve HIV Outcomes in Nigeria and Africa (2D43TW009608-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10912192. Licensed CC0.

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