Category: News

Congratulations to Dr. Kaylee Crockett, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, for being awarded a Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development (K23) grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Dr. Crockett was also one of the recipients of the 2021-2022 UAB-UMMC MWCCS Developmental Pilot award. Her project entitled “Impact of Intersectional Stigma in Healthcare Settings on Cardiovascular and Neurocognitive Health Outcomes” plans to look at women’s responses to surveys about feeling disrespected while receiving healthcare. She will also look at how those responses relate to tests of their heart health and their brain health. Dr. Crockett believes that better understanding of intersectional stigma’s impact on health outcomes in people with HIV can direct stigma-reduction interventions to the structural level (the healthcare setting)–in addition to individual level behavioral health interventions–to reduce the impact of stigma on pertinent comorbidities of HIV among women.

This is not Dr. Kaylee Crockett’s first involvement with MWCCS. As an MWCCS early career investigator, Crockett has published numerous journal articles utilizing the MWCCS database. This includes a highly critically acclaimed article entitled “Neighborhood Racial Diversity, Socioeconomic Status, and Perceptions of HIV-Related Discrimination and Internalized HIV Stigma Among Women Living with HIV in the United States.”  This article suggest the need for an increase in neighborhood diversity to lessen HIV stigma. 

CLICK HERE to find more information about Dr. Crockett’s K23 award.

Again CONGRATULATIONS Dr. Crockett!!!!

As the COVID-19 pandemic came into our lives in early 2020, the concerns for elderly relatives, family members, and friends became a priority. However for researchers at UAB those concerns were also felt for their tens of thousand study participants, whom many have been following for years. A recently article and YouTube presentation highlighted five UAB faculty members who are all principal investigators of major, large-scale cohort studies.    Each describe how their cohort handled the challenges presented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Mirjam-Colette Kempf, one of our UAB MWCCS principal investigators, was a part of the discussion. CLICK HERE to view the article.

Congratulations to the 2021-2022

UAB-UMMC MWCCS Developmental Pilot Grant Award Recipients

Dr. Jenni Wise, Assistant Professor

Elucidating the Differential Impact of Environmental and Psychosocial Factors on Stress, Inflammation, and Cardiovascular Risk: A Pilot Study among UAB-UMMC MWCCS Participant

Dr. Wei Li, Associate Professor

Proteomic Biomarkers for Assessing Neurocognitive Function in Women Living with HIV

Dr. Kaylee Crockett, Assistant Professor

Impact of Intersectional Stigma in Healthcare Settings on Cardiovascular and Neurocognitive Health Outcomes

Congratulations to Dr. Sadeep Shrestha, Professor in the UAB Department of Epidemiology! He is part of a team of investigators whose journal article “Primary HPV and Molecular Cervical Cancer Screening in US Women Living with HIV” was named a 2020 “Research Highlight” by the Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program at the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Howard Strickler, Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, led the project with participation of several Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) collaborators. The research on cervical cancer prevention focused on primary human papillomavirus screening with HPV16/18-genotyping in women living with HIV in the U.S. Researchers found that HPV screening with reflex testing for genotypes 16 and 18 resulted in fewer unnecessary colposcopies. If this finding is confirmed by other studies, it could be an important advance for women living with HIV. The UAB MWCCS clinical research study site contributed specimens from nearly 70 women enrolled in the WIHS Cohort.

This achievement exemplifies the strength and importance of data collected by the MWCCS. Congratulations to our UAB MWCCS investigators for the successful collaboration and this exciting new publication!

Full list of access Research Highlights publications is available at https://epi.grants.cancer.gov/news/

MPI Bulent Turan/Sheri Weiser/Edward Frongillo: Intersection of Material-Need Insecurities and HIV and Cardiovascular Health

Dr. Bulent Turan, Associate Professor in UAB’s College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychology along with Dr. Sheri Weiser (U of California San Francisco), and Dr. Edward Frongillo (U of South Carolina) have been awarded R01-funding by the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the “Intersection of Material-Need Insecurities and HIV and Cardiovascular Health”. This study will examine the separate and intersectional effects of four specific material-need insecurities (food, housing, financial, and healthcare insecurity) on HIV and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk outcomes using latent profile and latent transition analyses. The inability to have basic needs met such as food, housing, healthcare, or money may affect health outcomes among people living with HIV and at-risk for HIV.

Dr. Turan and his team hope to better understand how insecurities may co-occur, among which populations, and how they may or may not combine to affect synergistically HIV and CVD outcomes. Researchers will leverage the extensive physical exam, laboratory and survey data from the MWCCS, and add survey measures and blood collection in a longitudinal five-year study among >3000 HIV-infected and at-risk study participants.

For more information on this grant, visit https://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R01-HL155226-01

Jenni Wise: The Impact of Environmental and Psychosocial Stressors on Cardiovascular Disease Risk in Women Living with HIV: A Mixed Methods Study

Dr. Jenni Wise, an Assistant Professor in the UAB School of Nursing has been awarded K12 funding by the NIH National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to investigate the impact of healthy environments, the support of family and friends, and the ability to manage one’s day-to-day live on cardiovascular health of women living with HIV (WLWH) and women at risk of acquiring HIV (WARH). In the United States, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality and WLWH are at elevated risk for CVD compared to women without HIV. Understanding how clinical and socioeconomic disparities influence individual risk for CVD is essential to developing effective interventions and policies to best improve health outcomes.

Dr. Wise’s research aims to 1) examine the relationships between environmental, interpersonal, and individual factors on inflammation, stress, and CVD risk among nearly 2000 women living with HIV and at risk of HIV in the U.S., 2) explore individual traits (i.e., attitudes, behaviors, and coping mechanisms) that influence the impact of the environment on stress and CVD risk among women living with HIV and at risk of HIV in the Southern U.S. This is important since the Southeastern region is the epicenter for HIV infection and CVD risk in the U.S.  The research goal is to differentiate how risks for CVD differ by HIV status, age, exposure to geographic disparities, and dose of stress. The knowledge gained from the proposed research will be used to develop evidence-based interventions to improve CVD outcomes among WLWH.

Researchers will leverage the extensive physical exam, laboratory and survey data from the MWCCS research infrastructure, and add qualitative data collection (virtual focus groups and/or in-depth interviews).

To learn more about Dr. Wise, visit https://scholars.uab.edu/display/jmwise