Enhancing Training and Mentorship Opportunities for Young and Early

Investigators (YECIs)

Jonathan Fuchs, MD, MPHDirector of Vaccines and Training, San Francisco Dept. of Public Health

Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSFPrincipal Investigator, The OCTAVE Project

Co-chair, HVTN Training and Education Committee

IAS, Rome19 July 2011

Nature Medicine, 2010, 16: pp.981-989

The Need for Training and Mentorship Opportunities

“Strategies are needed to strengthen and clarify career paths for early-career investigators through mentorship, training and leadership opportunities…”

“More comprehensive multidisciplinary training opportunities could be provided, such as expanding the popular satellite workshops that are focused on a variety of scientific and career development topics and that are held in conjunction with major scientific conferences. The goal of these training sessions would be to provide more comprehensive educational experiences without increasing the overall length of postdoctoral training.”

Enterprise WG 5 YECI Report, Nature Precedings 07 Sep 2010

Outline• Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Initiatives

– OCTAVE Project (Online Collaborative Training for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation) Capacity Building Workshop Series

– HIVe– Mentoring

• HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) Training and Mentoring Programs– NHP ESI Scholars– SHAPe– RAMP

OCTAVE Project

• Online Collaborative Training for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation• OAR pilot project, funded in 2004

– Led by the Health Sciences and eTraining Foundation (HSeT), the HVTN, and NIH

– Contributors from many other lead partners (e.g., IAVI, VRC, USMHRP)

• Vision: Collaboratively create high quality training materials and approaches focused on global audiences of YECIs, clinical trial staff, and laboratorians

• Philosophy– Acknowledges the power of interactive, graphic-rich

content to convey complex concepts, particularly in immunology/vaccinology

– Interactive workshops that blend online and face-to-face training

– Collaborative leadership in planning and implementation

The OCTAVE Training Model

Orientation Kickoff Webinar

Preparatory Online Learning

Interactive, Face-to-face workshop

Longitudinal Works in Progress Webinars/ Social

Networking

Organizational Portals draw content from resource websites

OCTAVE Portal for the Enterprise: enterprise.bio-med.ch

2010-2011 Workshops• Vienna, July 2010 – Good Participatory Practices Guidelines

• Lead Partners: AVAC (Lori Miller) and UNAIDS.• 73 applicants, 33 selected• Case studies for GPP Guidelines in preparation

• Seattle, December 2010 –Correlates of vaccine protection • Workshop leads: Galit Alter, Penny Moore, Guido Ferrari, Clive Gray• 94 applicants; 12 selected• Manuscript on Correlates of Vaccine Protection in preparation

• Sao Paulo, March 2011 – Statistical Methods in Vaccine Trials • Lead partners: Brazilian Ministry of Health, SCHARP, Emmes Corporation• 63 Applicants; 29 selected

2010-2011 Workshops (continued)

• New York, June 2011 -Adjuvant design • Lead Partners: Novartis, Ragon Institute, NYU, IAVI• 82 applicants; 27 selected

• Bangkok, September 2011 –Statistical Methods in Vaccine Trials• Lead Partner: SCHARP, Emmes Corporation, Mahidol Univ.• 84 applicants; 29 selected

• Africa, December 2011 – Grant writing with strong mentoring component

• UCSF/ MUHAS/ HVTN/ HEARD• Call for applications: August 2011

OCTAVE Blended Learning Workshops

• From Concept to Clinic– HVTN 2006

• Train the Trainers– Seattle, AIDS Vaccine 2007

• Mucosal Immunity– CapeTown, AIDS Vaccine 2008

• Standardized Measurement of Neutralizing Antibodies

– Paris, AIDS Vaccine 2009

• RV144: Correlates of Immune Protection – Kampala, AAVP 2009

• NHP Challenge Models– HVTN/CHAVI ESI Scholars, Durham,

CHAVI Retreat 2010

OCTAVE -specific workshops– 270 trainees, 21 countries

Other workshops, self-directed learning– Over 1500 trainees

Enterprise Advisory Committee

• Informs our strategy to ensure workshops complement existing capacity building efforts for YECIs organized by institutions globally

• Identifies highest priority training needs• Provides input on upcoming workshops• Evaluation strategies• Focuses on sustainability of capacity building efforts

v

The YECI Committee• Galit Alter, The Ragon Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA• Jintanat Ananworanich (Co-chair), AFRIMS) Thailand• Michele Andrasik, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA• Dan Barouch, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, USA• Tim Cardozo, NY Langone Medical Center, NYU School of Medicine, USA• Bhavna Chohan, University of Nairobi, Kenya• Hayley Crawford, University of Oxford, UK• Jacques Fellay (Co-chair), Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Switzerland• Nicole Frahm, HVTN, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA• Jonathan Fuchs, San Francisco Dept of Public Health, USA• William Kilembe, Zambia-Emory HIV Research Project (ZEHRP), Zambia• Al Leslie, University of Oxford, UK• Penny Moore, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, South Africa• Morgane Rolland, US Military HIV Research Program (MHRP), USA• Rogier Sanders, University of Amsterdam and Weill Medical College, The

Netherlands/USA• Andrew Scheibe, University of Cape Town, South Africa• Misaki Wayengera, Makerere University, Uganda

v

Activities in Support of the Scientific Strategic Plan and Young and Early-career Investigators

The HIV Vaccine electronic (e) resource, or “HIVe,” is a global electronic clearinghouse of information for the HIV vaccine research community.

HIVe includes:

• Easy-to-navigate links to jobs, grants, scholarships and training opportunities

• The latest HIV vaccine research news, researcher profiles and other resources

• Prominent guest speakers weighing in on the most pressing issues in the field

• Open fora, where visitors can post their opinions, participate in debates and discussions, exchange information and pose questions to colleagues.

www.vaccineenterprise.org/hive

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Planned activities of the YECI Committee

Mentorship: this initiative aims to raise awareness, highlight the importance and build mentoring skills of YECIs. It will consist of different components including:• Development of a mentoring award• Article series on mentoring• OCTAVE workshop on mentoring and increasing number of training workshops to

accommodate demand

Open Access: aims to accelerate the access to research results by increasing access to HIV articles by:• Creating a central preprint server for HIV vaccine articles• Lobbing for data sharing and open science

Visibility: increase oral presentation by YECIs at conference by• Contacting conference organizers and lobbying for increasing the number of YECIs

invited to give oral presentations and included in organizing committees

Funding: increase funding opportunities for YECIs by• Developing a research report justifying increase in funding for YECIs

Outline• Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise Initiatives

– OCTAVE Project (Online Collaborative Training for AIDS Vaccine Evaluation) Capacity Building Workshop Series

– HIVe– Mentoring

• HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) Training and Mentoring Programs– NHP ESI Scholars– SHAPe– RAMP

HVTN/CHAVI NHP Early Stage Investigator Scholar Award

Funding Pilot Studies to Advance Non-Human Primate Models in Support of HIV Vaccines Clinical Research

HVTN/CHAVI NHP ESI Program Goals

• To bridge the gap between NHP and clinical vaccine science

• Attract promising new investigators• Invest in new ideas posed by early stage

investigators in collaboration with both Clinical and NHP scientist mentors

• Sponsored by NIAID; HVTN and CHAVI• 3 rounds have been funded

2009 Scholars – Cohort 1

Keith Reeves

David Kaufman

Sallie Permar

Shelby O’Connor

Lili Yang

New England Primate Research

Center

Beth Israel Deaconess

Medical Center

Children's Hospital Boston

University of Wisconsin

California Institute of Technology

2010 Scholars – Cohort 2

Ann-Sophie Dugast

James Kobie

Katherine Bar

Mohammed Asmal

Boston General Hospital

University of Rochester

University of Alabama

Birmingham

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

2011 Scholars – Cohort 3

Keith Reeves

Wendy Yeh

Carolina Herrera

Afam Okoye

New England Primate Research

Center

Beth Israel Deaconess

Medical Center

St. George's, University of

London

Oregon Health and Science University

Shaunna Shen

Lu-Ann Pozzi

Duke University

New England Primate Research

Center

SHAPe Program• Need to identify new physician scientists in

South Africa to lead HIV vaccine clinical trial and discovery efforts

• 25% of medical graduates specialize. Majority stay in hospital general track or go into general practice.– Research career paths are less well defined and

awareness of and access to research opportunities is limited

• Development of a PhD program to bolster HIV vaccine expertise in South Africa

• Co-sponsored by NIH, Fogarty International Center and the HVTN

SHAPe aims to:• Recruit young South African doctors (<11 yrs

from completing medical school)• Offers a salaried research position at HVTUs

in South Africa • Provides an environment conducive to Ph.D.

studies Research project Mentorship teams/ guidance Training (e.g., short-term placements to learn new

techniques, professional development, eLearning)

Opportunities for course work

SHAPe Scholars (July 2011)

• Dr. Shaun Barnabas: Research interests: Impact of genital tract inflammation and cellular activation on mucosal vaccine-induced antibody responses following HIV vaccination

• Dr. Katherine Young: Research interests: Factors within the South African population contributing to differences in immune activation (particularly co-morbid infectious diseases and risk behaviours)

• Carstarphen, Kathy Jo, MAUniversity of Alabama School of MedicineHVTN Site: University of Alabama and LimaMentors: Paul Goepfert and Jorge SanchezProject Title: "Public Perceptions of HIV Prevention Strategies”

• Chiosi, JohnMount Sinai School of MedicineHVTN Site: Cape Town Mentors: Linda-Gail Bekker and Magda SobieszczykProject Title: "Assessing the impact of an HIV education campaign in a peri-urban community of Cape Town, South Africa."

• Garnett, Chris, MPHUniversity of Kentucky School of MedicineHVTN Site: Lima Mentors: Javier Lama and Greg WilsonProject Title: "HIV Vaccine Acceptability Among Groups at High Risk for HIV Infection in Lima, Peru”

2011 RAMP Scholars – 1 of 2

www.hvtn.org/ramp

• Gonzalez, DanielCommonwealth Medical CollegeHVTN Site: FenwayMentors: Ken Mayer and Michele Peak-AndrasikProject Title: "Evaluating the effectiveness of HIV clinical trials recruitment strategies in subpopulations of MSM and MTF transgender individuals“

• Jones, Kathryn Lorraine, Ph.DDuke Medical SchoolHVTN Site: Duke Central Lab Mentors: Julie McElrath and Barton HaynesProject Title: "Characterization of the Memory B Cell and Plasma Cell Repertoires with Functional Analysis of the Antibodies Generated in Response to a HIV Envelope DNA Prime and rAd5 Vector Boost Vaccination Regimen.“

• Lopez Angel, Cesar, JoelStanford School of MedicineHVTN Site: San Francisco Department of Public HealthMentor: Jonathan FuchsProject Title: "Facilitators and Barriers to Participating in HIV Vaccine Trials."

2011 RAMP Scholars – 2 of 2

www.hvtn.org/ramp

Other Research focused Training and Mentorship programs targeting YECIs

• ACTG Minority Scholars Program• HPTN Scholar Program• IAVI Fellowship Program• Europrise PhD program

Summary

• Multiple approaches will be needed to expand training and mentoring opportunities for global audiences of YECIs

• Several groups are developing YECI-focused programs – Relying on distance learning +/- face-to-face

learning• Training Centers of Excellence capable of deploying

multimodal training should be explored

Acknowledgements

• San Francisco Dept. of Public Health– Emily Schaeffer, OCTAVE Series Coordinator

• HSeT– Jean Pierre Krahenbuhl– Mark Breitler– Alain Meystre– Nathalie Debard– Michelle Rossier

• Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise – Amapola Manrique– Jennifer Brunet– Yegor Grigoriev– Alan Bernstein

• Conference Solutions– Kate Porter– Jaclyn Skrivseth

• HVTN – Larry Corey– Jim Kublin– Danna Flood– Blythe Adamson– Alex Berger– Steve Wakefield

– Paul Johnson (Harvard)– Linda Gail Bekker (Desmond Tutu)– Gavin Churchyard

• NIH Office of AIDS Research– Bonnie Mathieson– Jack Whitescarver

Discussion questions

• What are high priority, unmet training needs?• What other approaches are being taken to support

training and mentorship that can be developed further?