Mentoring Investigators in HIV and Tuberculosis Therapeutics Research

SUMMARY Tuberculosis (TB) is now the leading infectious cause of death globally, and it remains the #1 cause of death among people living with HIV (PLWH). The first-line regimen is long and burdensome to patients and programs, and drug-resistant TB typically requires treatment for 1-2 years with drugs that can cause severe or irreversible toxicities. The TB drug development pipeline is now robust, providing reason for optimism. To optimize current and new drugs, though, we must employ state-of-the-art drug development approaches (including best use of quantitative pharmacology), and it is imperative that new drugs or regimens be developed so that they can be used in all patients that may benefit from them, including PLWH, children, and pregnant women. Critical challenges and opportunities lie in using clinically pharmacology as a tool more effectively in TB and HIV therapeutics research, across the drug development and optimization spectrum. This is the context for this application for a K24 Mid-Career Development Award for Kelly Dooley, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, & Molecular Sciences in the Divisions of Clinical Pharmacology and Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University, to provide protected time to mentor trainees in patient-oriented research in TB and HIV therapeutics. Dr. Dooley is one of the few Infectious Diseases specialists with training in Clinical Pharmacology working in the TB therapeutics field. She is a globally-recognized leader in TB and HIV- associated TB treatment research and has mentored (and is mentoring) multiple trainees in the field. Through the multiple independently-funded studies she is leading as well as those she is directing in her capacity as a member of the TB scientific leadership committees of the ACTG, TBTC, and IMPAACT networks, she is in a position to provide excellent opportunities to train the next generation of clinical researchers in patient-oriented research in TB and HIV. In addition, this K24 will allow her to expand her own knowledge in several key areas: quantitative pharmacology approaches, as applied to design and analysis in clinical trials of TB or TB-HIV treatment; biomarkers identification and use as well as understanding of drug delivery to hard-to-access compartments, for example in tuberculous meningitis; and a new area of critical unmet medical need, the treatment of nontuberculous mycobacteria (in patients with and without HIV). This K24 will allow Dr. Dooley to have the protected time to train the next generation of investigators in clinical pharmacology and clinical research, as applied to TB and HIV- associated TB, a critical shortage area; expand quantitative approaches in TB therapeutics work; and explore new areas of investigation. The protected time afforded by this award is essential to Dr. Dooley achieving these goals.