The ACTG established and supports the largest Network of expert clinical and translational investigators and therapeutic clinical trials units in the world, including sites in resource-limited countries. These investigators and units serve as the major resource for HIV/AIDS research, treatment, care, and training/education in their communities.
The scientific priorities of the ACTG network include research to:
Read more about this network: Advancing Clinical Therapeutics Globally for HIV/AIDS and Other Infections (ACT…
The Executive Committee provides oversight and resource allocation through its Scientific Agenda Steering Committee. The Transformative and Collaborative Science Groups, with input from and integration with the Resource Committees and the other committees, are empowered to develop, implement, and monitor the scientific agenda of the ACTG.
The ACTG has conducted more than 100 studies since 2006. These studies have led to more than 400 peer-reviewed publications. The results of some of these studies have been used to make changes to HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines.
From time to time, the ACTG publishes requests for application (RFA) from investigators to address special research questions that are of high priority to the network. In addition, the RFA may solicit applications to add additional non-Division of AIDS (DAIDS) funded Clinical Research Sites to a study if it is determined that they are needed to meet the required sample size.
The ACTG includes clinical research sites around the world.
The International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) Network is a global collaboration of investigators, institutions, community representatives, and other partners organized for the purpose of evaluating prevention and treatment interventions for HIV and HIV-associated complications and co-morbidities in infants, children, and adolescents, and during pregnancy and postpartum through the conduct of high-quality clinical trials.
Read more about this network: IMPAACT Network
The Network is directed by a leadership group led by Chair, Sharon Nachman, M.D., of the University of New York at Stony Brook, and the Network Vice Chairs, Patricia Flynn, M.D., of the St Jude Children's Research Hospital and Philippa Musoke, M.D., of the Makerere University-Johns Hopkins University Research Collaboration
IMPAACT holds a meeting annually.
The Markedly Accelerating Research with Knowledge of Tuberculosis Biomarkers (MARK-TB) has created a collaborative biobank in order to accelerate the development of new drugs and treatments for tuberculosis by validating and exploring biomarkers of response to TB drug treatments. The biobank will ultimately house biospecimens from 1000 adult patients in long-term storage for use by the TB research community.
In addition to its role in clinical epidemiology, the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) conducts high quality pathogenesis research, and is a unique resource for research because of the depth of data and specimens available from each study visit.
The original Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) collected and stored a variety of biological specimens. Inventory may be housed at the national level, or a subset at the local level. The now combined MACS-WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS) Data Analysis and Coordinating Center (DACC) coordinates and facilitates completion of specimen requests,
The Human Tissue and Organ Research Resource (HTORR) provides high-quality human biospecimens to investigators to facilitate scientific advances in biomedical research across multiple disciplines. HTORR collaborates with a nationwide network of organ procurement organizations, tissue banks, eye banks, and surgical medical centers to recover and distribute a wide variety of human biospecimens from post-surgery and post-mortem donors.
A common data model for sharing observational HIV data has been developed by the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA). The IeDEA DES is used by the seven operational regions of IeDEA to exchange data with each other for collaborative research studies. The IeDEA DES is collaborative work with the international HICDEP standards for HIV observational databases. Anyone is welcome to download the IeDEA DES and use it to structure their data.
The HVTN shares data and specimens collected in its studies with investigators who would like to use our materials to answer research questions related to vaccinology, immunology, or HIV/AIDS. These studies are called ancillary/exploratory studies, and the Network invites any researchers to do these studies because it is our belief that collaborative science benefits everyone, including the community.