Lisa Cencia Rohan (PhD ’95), an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy with secondary appointment in the School of Medicine, is working on the front lines of the most critical battle: the quest to block new HIV infections from sexual contact. Fortunately, her current project is among the most promising means of protecting women that is under way.
What her project entails is an idea borrowed from a concept used to make breath strips. By using a quick-dissolving vaginal film containing an anti-HIV drug, or microbicide, researchers believe they can stop transmission of the disease at the point of infection in a less expensive manner that women will, hopefully, accept.
Rohan and her team now have two drugs in clinical trials: dapivirin and tenofovir. Both drugs have been already been formulated for HIV prevention in pill and gel forms, but the film delivery platform offers a critical practical solution.
“An effective microbicide strategy should include different forms of the product,” she says. “Women will have preferences, and having options to meet those needs will lead to greater use and therefore better protection from infection.”
The film is less expensive to produce than the gel, more portable and discreet, less messy, and does not require refrigeration—all factors that could increase the chances that women would use them routinely. To support its development, Rohan and Hillier received an $11.8 million, five-year federal grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. She has also received funding from the Gates Foundation.
“For research in the area of HIV, I really don’t think I could be in a better place,” says Rohan. “We have such a huge concentration of excellent scientists who are top in the field and at the forefront of critical science in this area…. I just felt I was definitely in a place where I could work on significant research that could potentially make a big impact, and I got hooked.”
