The University of Buffalo's School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences on Tuesday announced that it has received a seven-year, $7.6 million grant from NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for HIV/AIDS research worldwide, Business First of Buffalo reports. The funding will be used to establish clinical pharmacology quality assurance programs and laboratories at the university's Pharmacotherapy Research Center and at the Translational Pharmacology Core in the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences.

The grant money also will support in-country laboratory specialist training in areas with high HIV/AIDS burdens worldwide, as well as allow researchers to analyze HIV/AIDS clinical trials. The program will train as many as 200 clinical researchers annually and offer clinical audits and other services. Bruce Holm, University of Buffalo senior vice provost and executive director of the Center of Excellence, said the funding is "just the beginning" for many potential projects, adding, "Over the next year to year and a half, we will launch even more of these programs" (Drury, Business First of Buffalo, 10/7).

Although one focus of the fight against HIV/AIDS worldwide is on increasing antiretroviral drug access and conducting clinical trials, such trials need to be carried out in countries with the highest HIV/AIDS burdens worldwide, the Buffalo News reports. However, many countries highly affected by HIV/AIDS do not have adequate facilities or trained specialists, according to the News. To address the issue, the Buffalo program will provide training in pharmacology to researchers who conduct trials on experimental antiretrovirals. The program also will conduct on-site audits, provide HIV/AIDS information and establish a centralized Web site to provide global access to research data. "We are excited about this opportunity to use our expertise and facilities to help fight the global AIDS epidemic," Gene Morse, professor and associate dean for clinical and translational research, said (Rey, Buffalo News, 10/7).