Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY-Center for AIDS Research Overview

The Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research (ERC-CFAR) is one of 18 NIH-funded Centers for AIDS Research (CFAR). The NIH-funded CFAR program emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, especially between basic and clinical investigators, translational research in which findings from the laboratory are brought to the clinic and vice versa, and an emphasis upon inclusion of minorities and inclusion of prevention and behavioral change research. The ERC-CFAR brings together the scientific strengths, research expertise and clinical resources of three major NYC academic institutions, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein), The Rockefeller University (Rockefeller) and The City University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY) to integrate our efforts across institutions and disciplines and share our overlapping resources and expertise to catalyze research to prevent, treat and eradicate HIV infection and thereby end the epidemic. In particular, the ERC-CFAR links a strong basic and clinical research institution with a large patient base of HIV-infected individuals (Einstein), a globally pre-eminent basic science institution (Rockefeller), and a strong public health/implementation science institution (CUNY).

Proactive, inclusive and integrated trans-institutional leadership to the ERC-CFAR is provided by a highly experienced and integrated team of Einstein, Rockefeller and CUNY investigators with complementary research and administrative expertise led by the ERC-CFAR Director, Dr. Harris Goldstein (Einstein), and Associate Directors, Dr. Denis Nash (CUNY), Dr. Marina Caskey (Rockefeller), and Dr. Betsy Herold (Einstein). They utilize their scientific expertise and leadership skills to establish a highly interactive, collaborative and inclusive CFAR which mobilizes and engages investigators from their respective institutions in ERC-CFAR programs and initiatives focused on “bench to bedside to community and back to the bench” research to achieve our mission, to arrest the AIDS epidemic.

The overarching goal of the ERC-CFAR is to stimulate, coordinate, and support an integrated multidisciplinary research agenda to achieve our mission, to arrest the AIDS epidemic, through improving utilization of current treatments in parallel with developing new therapies, such as potent broadly neutralizing antibodies, immunostimulators and CAR-T cells for improving treatment outcomes and inducing sustained remission among infected individuals and for preventing new infections. In addition to developing novel therapeutic approaches, our investigators are optimizing the translation of scientific breakthroughs into reality by identifying and implementing the most effective strategies to deliver treatments shown to be efficacious in clinical and bench research into the patient population. The ERC-CFAR supports Scientific Cores to support and advance the basic, clinical, behavioral, epidemiological, translational, and implementation research of the ERC-CFAR investigators and to provide the intellectual, technical, and financial support to advance the careers of the next generation of young, innovative, and interdisciplinary HIV/AIDS investigators. The ERC-CFAR is also engaged in building an innovative community partnership with representatives from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, community, and academia, to participate in collaborative studies to optimize HIV diagnosis, treatment, and prevention outcomes.