California HIV/AIDS Research Program Launches HIVMATRIX

A web site dedicated to promoting the growth and success of translational aspects of biomedical research in California, and beyond, by connecting ideas, technologies and people.

HIVMATRIX provides a forum for researchers, clinicians, entrepreneurs, industry experts, venture capitalists, private investors and technologists to exchange expertise, insights and ideas, and initiate collaborative efforts to bring new HIV therapies to the forefront.

Background

The California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP), formerly known as UARP, administers state funding for HIV-related research in basic and clinical sciences, social behavioral science and prevention awarded to California-based research institutions. In response to its goals to “support collaborative research, to be innovative and to develop funding partnerships in biomedical research”, the Biomedical Initiative was conceived. The Program conducted a statewide needs assessment process to obtain input from industry and academic scientists engaged in active HIV research. Then UARP’s Task Force (now the CHRP Advisory Council) recommended adoption of the framework of the Initiative as developed from the input process.

Biomedical Initiative

The goal of the Biomedical Initiative is to accelerate HIV/AIDS-related therapeutic development in California, focusing on the pre-clinical aspects of therapeutics/vaccine/diagnostics of the product development process. To achieve this mission, BI aims to provide services, educational and research opportunities, to stimulate translational research, and to encourage collaborations among scientists in academia and the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry. In addition to generating leverage of California HIV/AIDS Research Program (CHRP) dollars through attracting non-UC support, the Biomedical Initiative is intended to support collaborative and translational research projects between academic and industry biomedical researchers, as well as among academic researchers in California.

Initiative Focus

In 2006, under the Biomedical Initiative, CHRP introduced a new Translational Postdoctoral Fellowship Award to nurture a new generation of cross-disciplinary investigators with an emphasis on Academia-Industry joint mentoring of postdoctoral fellows pursuing translational biomedical research.

CHRP is now launching ‘HIVMATRIX’, a web-based community forum and resource clearinghouse to facilitate and stimulate HIV/AIDS translational and collaborative biomedical research in California, and beyond. MATRIX (Multipurpose Translational Research Information eXchange) has been designed to provide a platform for communication among HIV/AIDS researchers who can offer resources or expertise relevant to ongoing or potential research projects in the biomedical sciences.

HIVMATRIX provides a unique ‘One Stop’ reference database of HIV-related licensable technologies that were developed in academia and could be available for commercial implementation.

For More Information:

Anwer Mujeeb, MSc, PhD

Biomedical Program Officer, CHRP

(510) 287-3340

Peter Agron, PhD

Core Grants Program Manager, CHRP

(510) 987-9858