(Essex and Lee, the late Bernard Fields of Harvard Medical School), AIDS treatment (Massachusetts General Hospital's Martin Hirsch, the Deaconess Hospital's Jerome Groopman, and others), epidemiology (Professor Nancy Mueller, Marlink, Kanki, and others), molecular biology (William Haseltine and Joseph Sodroski at Dana Farber Cancer Institute), statistical modelling and clinical trials design (Professor Steven Lagakos and Associate Professor Victor De Gruttola, s.D.'86) and AIDS law and policy (Lawrence Gostin, Harvey Fineberg, and the late William Curran). Officially unveiled in 1 9 8 8 , the Institute, under Essex's direction, has been a catalyst for research and training on AIDS. As hoped, the Institute's creation helped accelerate AIDS research across the university (Harvard ranked hrst among academic institutions in the number of Papers its researchers published on AIDS between 1 9 8 8 and 1992.). The Institute has also succeeded in focusing a t t e n t i o n o n AIDS a n d AIDS
research locally, nationally, and internationally, through Institutesponsored lectures and forums and conferences—including large panel discussions as well as informal, brown-bag lunches. In addition, the Institute has served as a bridge between the academic world and the broader public realm of AIDS activists and advocates.
AIDS Action Committee (Acc),
^
Boston's leading service and advocacy organization for people with A I D S . Kessler also credits Essex, Groopman, and other Boston-area physicians and researchers with recognizing early on the need to integrate clinical treatment with the services offered through A I D S Action's "social safety net" —particularly in light of the few treatment options available at that time. As the disease has proliferated, the connection between the advocacy group and the research institution has only become stronger, says Kessler. Each organization had something valuable to teach the other. "While we learned about immunology, the docs learned about the psychosocial issues," says Kessler. It was a relationship that would also prove critical when volunteers were needed for clinical trials of new drugs: Harvard researchers turned immediately to AAC, whose clients trusted the organization to steer them in the right direction.
^ ^ ^ Hiv drug, AZT, was approved ^ ^ by the Food and Drug Administration the demand for safe, effective treatments had reached a fever pitch. Desperate for answers, people with A I D S demanded more attention from government, scientists, and the pharmaceutical industry, clamoring in particular for quicker access to experimental drugs. In 1 9 8 9 , the analysis of AIDS drugs received a big boost when the National Institutes of Health selected Harvard's Statistical and Data Analysis Center ( S D A C ) to analyze and interpret data from most of the federally funded clinical trials of AIDS drugs around the country. Over the next eight years the center would help analyze over 300 clinical trials involving some 3 7 , 5 0 0 people and provide critical insights about the treatment of AIDS (see sidebar, 54).
"We don't even have to work at it," says Kessler of A I D S Action's continuing "good connection" with the Institute and School. "It's in the fabric of what we do."
^
Y 1 9 8 7 , WHEN THE FIRST ANTI-
By the early 1 9 9 0 s , the emerging picture was that of a relentless epidemic involving shifting demographics. Nearly 2.5 million people had died from the disease, and more than i z million people were now infected with Hiv, a i z o - f o l d increase from a decade earlier.
AssocMfe Pro/essor o/'Pa^o&wfogy, /(g^OMHIV-2., H i v - i ' s /ess w M / e M t
'From the very beginning, Dean Harvey Fineberg saw AIDS as a public health issue and believed that there ^as a role for the public health advocates," says Larry Kessler, executive director and one of the founders of
Center for Health Communication established under the direction of Jay Winsten, to provide reliable health information to the public. The Center will go on to launch the nationwide "Designated Driver" campaign to reduce drunk driving fatalities.
Max Essex, chair of the Department of Cancer Biology, receives the Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award for his pioneering work in understanding the biochemical and genetic characteristics of the AIDS virus.