Total grant amount: US$8.3 million

( Grand Challenge No. 6: Learn which Immunological Responses Provide Protective Immunity
Project Title: Comprehensive Studies of Mechanisms of HIV Resistance in Highly Exposed Uninfected Women
HIV, the life-threatening virus that attacks the immune system and progressively leaves infected people vulnerable to debilitating infections and cancers, still affects millions of people around the world. The rare cases of HIV resistance, however, in those highly exposed, yet uninfected, are very important in the study to combat HIV infection. Dr. Plummer and his team of researchers will study a wide range of factors in both susceptible and resistant women, attempting to characterize correlates of protective immune responses to HIV in both categories of women. More specifically, to determine if genotype/phenotypes associated with resistance, or with a favourable response to the model vaccinogen protect against HIV infection in a prospective study of HIV serocoversion in sexworker and non-sexworker cohorts. With this, their study will focus on the factors associated with resistance in resistant women and their families, in hopes of discovering the true mechanism of HIV resistance.

History of CIHR Support:

Brief Biography of Dr. Frank Plummer:

Dr. Plummer is a native of Manitoba. He graduated from Shaftesbury High School in 1969 and received his medical degree from the University of Manitoba in 1976. After post-graduate training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Southern California, the University of Manitoba, the University of Nairobi, and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, he joined the University of Manitoba faculty in 1984 to direct the university's research projects in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Plummer has been an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences in the USA, a consultant to the World Bank, the World Health Organization, and the Governments of Kenya, India and Lesotho. He has received a number of awards and honours including the Rh Institute Award, an Achievement Award from the American Venereal Disease Association, a Scholarship from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, Fellowship, Scholarship, Scientist and Senior Scientist awards from the Medical Research Council of Canada, Senior Investigator of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, I.S Ravidin Award in the Basic Sciences from the American College of Surgeons, an honorary and has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. In 2001, he was named Canada Research Chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and is currently Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Medical Microbiology, as well as Associate Professor of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Plummer also assumes the positions of Director General of the Centre for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control in Ottawa, Scientific Director General of National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg and Senior Scientific Advisor of the Public Health Agency of Canada.