Benjamin Chi, MD, MSC, from the UNC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, has successfully renewed a K24 mentoring grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. This will be the second five-year grant cycle for which Dr. Chi has received this award.
The NIH K24 award provides dedicated effort to mentor early-stage investigators in patient-oriented research. Specifically, this funding will support mentorship for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees interested in HIV prevention for pregnant and postpartum women. Globally, this is an important but often overlooked gap in maternal health and the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) programs.
The grant builds upon ongoing research, including several projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, that investigates HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in southern Africa. It focuses on HIV prevention in the context of important biological, clinical, cultural, and social factors that are often neglected during these periods.
In the first grant cycle, Dr. Chi mentored 26 investigators, including 10 recipients of career development awards (i.e., K grants) from the NIH. Over that time, he published 78 articles, with 51 featuring mentees as lead authors.
In the last 60 years, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has pioneered new therapies, vaccines, diagnostic tests, and other technologies that have improved the health of millions of people in the United States and around the world, according to their website.