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Supervisor View 2
October 3, 2016
Supervisor View Full Details 2nd
October 12, 2016

Dr Patrick Mallon

Department:School of Medicine

Organisation:University College Dublin

Webpage:http://www.ucd.ie/medicine/ourresearch/researchgroups/hivmolecularresearchgroup/

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Research Fields
  • genetics, genomics and molecular biology
  • infectious disease and the immune system
  • physiology and non-communicable disease
  • epidemiology/population health research
Postgrad Medical Specialites
  • Medicine
Medical Subspecialties
  • Infectious diseases
My Work

The HIV Molecular Research Group (HMRG) is internationally recognized for its translational research into long-term co-morbidities associated with HIV infection and its treatment with antiretroviral therapy and research into models of testing to increase early diagnosis of HIV. By the human host as a research model, HMRG gas established a strong track record in pathogenesis based research in HIV, with results that are immediately applicable to patient care. Areas of focus include cardiovascular disease, bone disease, HIV Cure and other diseases of ageing, with funding from multiple sources including the HRB, NIH, EU H2020 and pharma and more than 5 million euro in funding since 2008.

With a strong team of translational clinical researchers, biostatisticians and laboratory researchers the HMRG supports both large, multi centre observational studies as well as investigator initiated clinical trials with biobanking and laboratory facilities necessary to perform high level, multiomic, translational research.

Potential Projects

Exploring pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease in HIV.
The objective of this project is to define the pro-atherogenic biological profile characterizing effectively treated HIV infection and determine its impact on pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in HIV. This objective is driven by two hypotheses:
1. The heightened risk of CVD in people living with HIV (despite successful therapy) is driven by HIV-related modifications in one or more of the following biological systems: monocyte/macrophage cholesterol metabolism, chronic immune activation, endothelial function, platelet function, gut microbial translocation and the gut microbiome
2. The incorporation of biomarkers targeting these pathways into pre-existing CVD risk algorithms will improve the predictive capacity of these algorithms

This proposal exploits considerable multidisciplinary expertise contained within the study team in HIV medicine, multiomics, bioinformatics and functional lipid metabolism and the unique opportunity presented by a large (n=1400), multi centre, international cohort study of older HIV+ subjects (POPPY study,) as well as international collaborations between UCD and UCC, UCLA, Washington University and Rush University in designing intensive, pathogenesis-based cohort studies of ART initiation.

Aim 1. Using a multiomics approach to define the biological abnormalities contributing to a pro-atherogenic host biological environment that persist in people living with HIV even after initiation of effective antiretroviral therapy
Aim 2. Validate these biological abnormalities in populations of different ages, ethnicities and genders to identify a biological pattern represented by a panel of markers that most closely defines the pro-atherogenic environment in treated people living with HIV
Aim 3. Explore the utility of this biological profile to enhance the predictive capacity of CVD risk equations in predicting clinical events or progression of CVD in a high risk population of ART-treated people living with HIV