Presentation: HAND is Common and Important in Patients on ART, Igor Grant, MD (PDF)

Drs. Igor Grant and Scott Letendre presented at the third North European Workshop on HIV–infection in the central nervous system (HANSA 2013) that took place in Berlin, Germany, 26-27 April 2013.  The aim of HANSA 2013 is to assemble clinicians and researchers together to advance knowledge of ongoing HIV central nervous system (CNS) research. The conference covered basic issues and controversies.

On June 16, 2012, Susan Roepke-Buehler, a doctoral student under the mentorship of Dr. Grant, received her Ph.D. from the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. Susan worked with Dr. Grant on the Alzheimer Caregiver Study for the past 6 years examining the effects of chronic caregiving stress on psychological and physiological outcomes. During her time with the Caregiver Study, Susan authored/co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles in a variety of reputable psychiatry, psychology, aging, and cardiology journals. Susan’s dissertation work focused on modeling the psychosocial and physiological pathways linking chronic stress to atherosclerotic disease in Alzheimer caregivers. Psychosomatic Medicine published one of her first-authored papers reporting that caregivers were more likely to have carotid plaque compared with noncaregivers. The results from this study also suggested that the development of plaque might be enhanced by prolonged sympathoadrenal response to acute stress. Susan completed her final year of her graduate training on internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the Departement of Psychiatry. She then accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at UIC and is excited to continue her training in Health Psychology. Congratulations, Susan!

It was a happy day for Kenny Lin and his family on June 3, 2012, as he received his M.D. from the UCSD School of Medicine. In addition to completing his demanding medical curriculum, Kenny chose to do research under the mentorship of Dr. Grant, and assisted by Dr. Michael Taylor. Kenny received one of only three NIH summer grants awarded in 2009, to pursue a project on the effects of history of head injury on neurological function in persons with HIV infection. This project led to Kenny's publishing a first author paper entitled "Effects of traumatic brain injury on cognitive functioning and cerebral metabolites in HIV infected individuals", which demonstrated that non-severe traumatic brain injuries did indeed increase the risk of mild neurocognitive problems in persons with HIV, and also that there may be persisting changes in certain brain metabolites to indicate neural injury. Kenny also completed another project which was an online resource for students wishing to develop a better understanding of neurocognitive disorders. Kenny is continuing his specialty training in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.  Congratulations, Kenny!