Posts
San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee
officially cut the ribbon to open the San Francisco Department of Public
Health’s (DPH) new Bridge HIV research facility, which is part of San
Francisco’s new $9.5 million HIV/AIDS Research Center. “The research that has
come out of the San Francisco AIDS Office has changed the way we look at,
treat, and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS all over the world. The new
state-of-the-art Bridge HIV facility reflects the commitment and integrity of
the work that goes on here, and we have produced a new innovative world class
center for world class researchers,” said Mayor Lee. Dignitaries such as Democratic
Leader Nancy Pelosi, DPH Director Barbara Garcia, and Department of Public
Works (DPW) Director Mohammed Nuru all spoke at the opening of the new
facility.
The Bridge HIV facility completion
marks the end of phase one of the SOAR project (San Francisco Office of AIDS
Renovation). The project is financed by a grant through the National Center for
Research Resources at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is part of
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The new 17,000 square feet
HIV/AIDS research center will expand and improve the current research
activities and accommodate future scientific needs.
Thirty years after the discovery of
the virus that causes AIDS, the San Francisco DPH’s AIDS Office has matured
into three independent and collaborative grant-funded research units managing a
$46 million research portfolio. The three units are (1) Bridge HIV (formerly
HIV Research Section), a leading site in the NIH-funded HIV Vaccine Trials
Network, the Prevention Trials Network, the clinical trial groups of HIV
Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PreP), and other investigator-initiated research; (2)
the HIV Epidemiology Section, which evaluates the incidence and prevalence of
persons with HIV/AIDS; and (3) the HIV Prevention Section, the leading site for
the National Institute of Drug Abuse AIDS-funded Clinical Trials Network.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
TOGETHER WE REMAIN STRONG!
