 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Member Information
Gregory Bisson, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, University of Pennsylvania
Office Phone: 215-573-5811
Office Fax:
Email: bisson@mail.med.upenn.edu
Website(s):
Education:
Keywords: HIV-1, AIDS, GB Virus C, Opportunistic Infections, Adverse Events, Monitoring, Transmission
Research and/or Clinical Interests:
Identifying determinants of HIV acquisition and transmission as well as understanding HIV treatment-related adverse events and developing low-cost approaches to monitoring HIV infection.
Summary:
Understanding factors related to HIV acquisition and transmission is paramount to developing ways to decrease the spread of HIV infection throughout the world. Although several behavioral, infectious and genetic correlates of increased or decreased transmission risk have been described, many of these factors are rare and unlikely to explain the significant variability in disease prevalence across populations. A current project evaluates the possible effect of GB Virus C (GBV-C) on risk of HIV acquisition. GBV-C is a common and apparently non-pathogenic flavivirus that has been associated with slower disease progression among HIV-positive individuals. Although the reasons behind this association are unclear, the planned study will evaluate the effect of GBV-C on HIV acquisition risk among a cohort of HIV-negative individuals. Future studies will evaluate the effect of GBV-C on HIV viral load set-point and risk of HIV viral load breakthrough after initial viral suppression to undetectable levels.
Other planned projects include developing a low-cost clinical prediction rule meant to predict the likelihood of an undetectable viral load after initiating antiretroviral therapy, evaluating the incidence of cryptococcal meningitis and the role of c. neoformans variant gatii among individuals in Gabarone, Botswana, and understanding the cause and significance of squamous cell carcinoma of the conjunctiva.
Representative Publications:
Bisson GP, Gross R, Miller V, et.al. Monitoring of Long-Term Toxicities of HIV Treatments: Report from the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research, Washington , D.C. , April 17-18, 2002. Accepted for publication in AIDS , 5/2003.
