A POWERFUL ENGINE

Kimberley Hagen, Shelle Bryant, and Judy Catasein are the go-to experts on the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR). Funded by NIH since 1998, CFAR encompasses the RSPH and the schools of medicine and nursing, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, the Emory Vaccine Center and the Hope Clinic, the Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), Emory University Hospital (EUH) Midtown, and the Ponce de Leon Center, an outpatient clinic operated by Grady Health System. The 8,000 patients treated annually at the Ponce Center, EUH Midtown, and the VAMC constitute one of the largest concentrations of HIV/AIDS patients in the country. The Administrative Core helps CFAR’s wheels turn daily. For example, Bryant and Catasein assisted with planning and logistics for the AIDS Vaccine 2010 Conference in Atlanta, and once a month, Hagen organizes the Vaccine Dinner Club (VDC), a popular speakers program with more than 2,000 members. On World AIDS Day, Kevin DeCock, director of the CDC’s Center for Global Health and former director of HIV/AIDS at WHO, spoke to a packed house of VDC members and guests.

“There is no superman,” said DeCock of ending the global AIDS epidemic. “The answer lies within ourselves.”

MORE THAN 90% OF PEOPLE WITH HIV/AIDS IN THE UNITED STATES USE TWO DRUGS DEVELOPED AT EMORY.