Below are Gilead’s Research Scholar Program HIV Awardees and their research titles. As the program values diverse voices and innovative research topics to address areas of unmet medical need, you do not need to duplicate previous research topics in order to be successful for an Award.
Any basic, clinical, epidemiological, behavioural, implementation science or community-based participatory research proposal that addresses an area of unmet medical need in HIV is welcome.
To help support you with your application, some of our Scholars have very kindly agreed to share their research proposals to help provide best practice examples. You can download these here. Text from the applications are copyrighted. The awardee provided permission for Gilead’s Research Scholars Program to post their application files onto the website for educational purposes to future applicants. The awardee allows you to use the materials for educational purposes only, provided that the material remains unchanged. Any use of the awardee material or organizations should be credited.
For other examples of exceptional applications, please visit the NIH’s RO1 sample applications through this helpful resource: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/grants-contracts/sample-applications
Cohort 9 Award Recipients (2023)
Styliani Karanika, MD
Johns Hopkins University
"Assessing the Efficacy and Main Mechanism of Action of an Intranasal DNA Therapeutic Tuberculosis Vaccine targeting Mycobacterium Tuberculosis persisters in an Immunocompromised Model"
Elka Georgieva, PhD
Texas Tech University
"Structural basis of CD4 receptor downregulation by the HIV-1 Vpu protein"
Aditi Ramakrishnan, MD, MSc
Washington University in St.Louis
"A Novel Approach of Epidemiology and Intervention Mapping to Improve PrEP Retention in Sexual Health Clinics"
Cohort 8 Award Recipients (2022)
Jenny Pena Dias, PhD, MPH
Johns Hopkins University
"SHBG and Frailty among women with HIV and without HIV"
Ashwanth Francis, PhD
Florida State University
"Delineating the mechanisms of nucleoplasmic HIV-1 transport towards sites of vDNA integration"
Ria Goswami, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine
"Gastrointestinal microbiome interventions to reduce infant HIV acquisition via breastfeeding"
Chemtai Mungo, MD, MPH, FACOG
University of North Carolina
"Feasibility of artestesunate for cervical precancer treatment among HIV+ women in low-income countries"
Celestine Wanjalla, MD, PhD
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
"B Cells and Atherosclerosis in Persons with HIV"
Sarah Wood, MD, MS
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
"A Clinical Decision Support-Based Intervention to Improve Equitable Adolescent HIV Screening and PrEP Delivery in Primary Care"
Cohort 7 Award Recipients (2021)
Gaea A. Daniel, PhD, RN
Emory University
"Endocrine Disrupting Chemical Exposures and Sexual Health Behaviors and Outcomes of Southern Black Women Living with HIV"
Alison Feder, PhD
University of Washington
"Computational Modelling of HIV Drug Resistance Evolution on Triple-drug Combination Therapies"
Maolin Lu, PhD
University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler
"Conformational landscape and dynamics of HIV-1 fusion protein required for virus entry"
Preeti Manavalan, MD, MSc
University of Florida
"mHealth technology to improve anxiety and depression care and end the HIV epidemic in the rural South"
Jade Pagkas-Bather, MD, MPH
University of Chicago Department of Medicine
"wRAP (We Realize and Prioritize): Understanding the care needs of young Black sexual minority men"
Sanyog Shitole, MBBS, MPH
University of California, San Francisco
"Metabolomic Signatures of Liver Disease in Women with or at Risk for HIV”
Cohort 6 Award Recipients (2020)
Melissa Kane, PhD
University of Pittsburgh
"Inhibition of nuclear import pathways by Mx2"
Gaurav D. Gaiha, MD, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital/Ragon Institute
"Delineating the Potential of Highly Networked CTL Epitopes for HIV Cure Efforts"
Lina Rosengren-Hovee, MD, MPH, MS
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
"The role of social media in the environment of young black MSM as a barrier to HIV prevention with PrEP"
Roman Shrestha, PhD, MPH
University of Connecticut
"Integrated Rapid Access to HIV Prevention Program for People Who Inject Drugs (iRaPID)"
Cohort 5 Award Recipients (2019)
Kassem Bourgi, MD
Indiana University School of Medicine
"Weight Gain and Immunologic Recovery among Persons Living with HIV Receiving Dolutegravir in Kenya"
Horacio Adrian Duarte, MD, MS
University of Washington
"Health Policy Modeling to Address Maternal HIV Pretreatment Drug Resistance in Kenya"
Judd Hultquist, PhD
Northwestern University
"Exploring the Genetic Determinants Underlying HIV Replication and Latency"
Suman Srinivasa, MD, MS
Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School
"Advance: Critical Effects of Dicer on Adipose Tissue in HIV Lipodystrophy"
Cohort 4 Award Recipients (2018)
Lalit Deshmukh, PhD
University of California, San Diego
"Targeting the transient dark state of HIV-1 nucleocapsid with small drug-like molecules"
Ellen Eaton, MD, MSPH
University of Alabama, Birmingham
"Improving kidney health for African Americans with HIV through optimal Antiretroviral Therapy Selection"
Ya-Chi Ho, MD, PhD
Yale University School of Medicine
"Single-cell characterization of HIV-1-infected cells"
Suzanne McCluskey, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital
"Appraising World Health Organization Recommendations To Switch Nucleos(t)ide Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor At First-Line Virologic Failure"
Cohort 3 Award Recipients (2017)
Stylianos Bournazos, PhD
The Rockefeller University
"Development and evaluation of anti-HIV-1 antibodies with potent cytotoxic activity
against HIV-1 infected cells"
Jennifer A Downs, MD, PhD
Weill Cornell Medicine
"Mechanisms of Mucosal HIV Susceptibility and Reversibility in Schistosoma mansoni
Infection"
Catherine A. Koss, MD
University of California, San Francisco
"Development of a Social Network-Enhanced Adherence Intervention for PrEP in Young African Women"
Raeanne C. Moore, PhD
HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program (HNRP) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
"Remote Sensing Technology to Improve Community-Based Fall Risk Assessment and Prevention Among Older Adults Living with HIV"
Cohort 2 Award Recipients (2016)
Alejandro B. Balazs, PhD
Harvard Medical School
"Elucidating the Rules Governing Control and Elimination of HIV Infection by Antibodies"
Jordan E. Lake, MD, MSc
UCLA *
"Understanding the Contributions of HIV Infection and Hormone Therapy to
Cardiovascular Disease Risk Among Transgender Women: A Deadly Crossroads?"
Elizabeth Lowenthal, MD, MSCE
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
"Stigma Reduction to Close the Adolescent HIV Testing Gap"
James B. Munro, PhD
Tufts University School of Medicine
"HIV-1 Env-mediated Membrane Fusion at Single-Molecule Resolution"
* At time of award.
Cohort 1 Award Recipients (2015)
Kristine M. Erlandson, MD, MS
University of Colorado
"Moderate- or High-dose Exercise to Attenuate Inflammation in HIV and Aging"
Jonathan Li, MD, MMSc
Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School
"Discovery of Monoclonal Therapeutics for Long-Term HIV Control"
Daniel Lingwood, PhD
The Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard
"IGHV1-2*02 Antibody Expansion as a Genetic Template for an HIV Vaccine"
Jennifer C. Price, MD
University of California, San Francisco
"The Influence of HIV Infection on the Natural History of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease"