UMMC received NIH renewal of its Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study/Women Interagency HIV Study Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS). Dr. James “Ben” Brock, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, serves as UMMC site PI of the study.

The MWCCS is a collaborative research effort that aims to understand and reduce the impact of chronic health conditions—including heart, lung, blood, and sleep (HLBS) disorders—that affect people living with HIV. The study is designed to investigate a spectrum of questions relating to the basic science, clinical science, and epidemiology of HIV infection in the U.S., with a focus on comorbidities among men and women living with HIV. MWCCS is the largest and longest observational cohort study tracking the natural progression of HIV in women/men with/without HIV across the United States. The cohort study represents thousands of participants across 5 decades. Dr. Bradley Deere, Associate Professor in the Division of Cardiology, also recently joined the cohort study as a co-investigator. UMMC serves as a joint cohort site along with the University of Alabama at Birmingham Center for AIDS Research, where Mirjam Kempf serves as site PI.