HIV & GU Medicine academic outline
A very popular F2 academic programme with opportunities for clinical and/or laboratory based research with leading HIV researchers supported by funds from international sponsors.
Details
The F1 year is based in York, and the F2 year spent in Hull for the clinical posts, and at HYMS in York University for academic four months.
The academic attachment during F2 is with Professor Charles Lacey who is a clinical academic specialising in HIV & GU Medicine. Prof Lacey looks after outpatients with HIV and STDs, and in-patients with HIV at York Hospital. Prof Lacey is also one of the Principal Investigators at the Centre for Immunology and Infection (CII) at the University of York. The academic F2 will work with Prof Lacey and his team to gain knowledge of the fundamental principles of clinical and translational research.
The clinical service is based at the Sexual Health Clinic, 31 Monkgate, York, and there is close collaboration with Dr Ian Fairley, Clinical Lead and the NHS team. The research team has offices at Monkgate, laboratories and offices at the CII, and also conducts phase 1 trials in the HYMS Experimental Medicine Unit at York Hospital. The research team consisting of ten people includes:
- Prof Lacey
- Dr Fabiola Martin, Senior Lecturer,
- Academic F2,
- Dr Rebecca Wiggins, Senior Technician,
- and currently a research fellow, a research nurse, a clinical trials assistant, a post-doc, a PhD student and a junior lab tech.
Some current funding streams and activities:
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation / Wellcome Trust – Gates Grand Challenges award to develop mucosal HIV-1 vaccines
- European Commission Framework 6 Network of Excellence award – funding studies of immunoglobulin transport and Fc receptor function in the female genital tract
- European Commission Framework 7 award – funding the development of a combination antiretroviral microbicide and a first-into-woman phase 1 trial
- Wellcome Trust Technology Transfer award - to develop an adenovirus-vectored Leishmania therapeutic vaccine
- We are also conducting studies of the immunology and pathogenesis of Chlamydia trachomatis
The academic F2 will work with the team to deliver the current research programme. They will be encouraged to take responsibility for a specific output of their own which fits into the overall research programme. Intended goals are a publication and presentations. Arrangements are made for all the HYMS academic F2s to attend the Introduction to Research Methodology course at the Department of Health Sciences, University of York, and to sit the exam.
