Member, Director of Development, Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Division
Affiliate Professor, Departments of Global Health and Epidemiology, University of Washington     

Ann Duerr's research focuses on AIDS and HIV prevention, including novel vaccine strategies for induction of mucosal immunity, studies on antiretroviral therapy (ART), clinical trials in resource-poor settings and eludicating factors that help prevent sexual transmission of HIV. She has published widely on HIV infection in women, biological and epidemiological determinants of HIV transmission, and HIV-STD interactions. She has served on numerous advisory committees, both domestically and internationally, and worked extensively with the World Health Organization as a consultant. 

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Assistant Professor, Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Division
Assistant Professor, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Epidemiology University of Washington

Rachel Bender Ignacio, MD, MPH, conducts research focused on the role of co-infections and inflammation on HIV outcomes. She also collaborates on many studies on HIV-associated malignancies, specifically on cancers caused by human herpesviruses, and the role of antiretroviral therapy in treating HIV-associated cancers.  She directs UW Positive Research, the ACTG -affiliated HIV therapeutics research unit at the University of Washington and the COVID-19 Clinical Research Center here at the Hutch. She is board certified in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine, and feels privileged to be able to provide HIV primary care and serve as a consultant for the Infectious Disease service at Harborview Medical Center and for the Solid Organ Transplant ID service at the University of Washington Medical Center.

https://www.fredhutch.org/en/faculty-lab-directory/bender-ignacio-rachel.html

Alex Lankowski is a Research Associate in VIDD at the Fred Hutch. His research seeks to better understand the factors that influence HIV treatment and prevention outcomes in marginalized populations, and to enable the development and implementation of evidence-based interventions to decrease the burden of HIV in such groups. Currently, his work focuses on community-based HIV testing as a potential strategy to reach individuals within high-risk sexual networks in Lima, Peru, supported by a K23 award from NIH. Previous work includes research on HIV treatment outcomes in Uganda, supported by a Doris Duke International Clinic Research Fellowship during medical school, and on PrEP uptake in the Bronx, New York during his residency training.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and remains active as a clinician.

Delia Pinto-Santini, PhD, obtained her Molecular and Cellular Biology degree in the laboratory of Dr. Nina Salama, studying the bacterial organism Helicobacter pylori.  She is currently the HOPE Project Coordinator and has initiated a research collaboration with Dr.  Ann Duerr and Dr. Sam Minot to study microbiome changes associated with HIV outcomes in MSM from Lima, Peru.

Sayan Dasgupta is a staff scientist with VIDD. He is involved in the statistical design and analysis of research projects.

Michalina Montaño is a postdoctoral trainee on the University of Washington/Fred Hutch Interdisciplinary Training in Cancer Research training grant. Her research interests include HIV-associated health disparities, sexual health, sexual behavior, and HIV and STI prevention. Her postdoctoral research seeks to estimate the burden of untreated HIV among cancer patients in three sub-Saharan African countries (Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa) and explore provider-identified barriers to concurrent initiation of cancer and HIV treatment. Her dissertation research focused on the impact of biomedical methods of HIV prevention such as treatment as prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis on sexual behavior and STI risk among men who have sex with men.

Deanna Tollefson is a postdoctoral trainee who brings her training in global health implementation science to help incorporate implementation science research into the work of the HOPE group. She works primarily on HIV projects in southern Africa.

Si manages the clinical, behavioral, laboratory, and specimen databases for the clinical trials and other research projects and assists in the management of IRB submissions and renewals to ensure all research projects remain compliant with the human subject research guidelines

Gregory Zane is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Washington. He received a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at the University of Washington, and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from The Ohio State University. Previously, Gregory has worked on public health evaluation projects in South Africa and Zimbabwe and most recently served as the lead Outbreak Systems Epidemiologist and WA Notify Epidemiologist for the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 response. His research interests focus on applying multidisciplinary approaches to HIV and STI prevention. Gregory’s dissertation will evaluate vaccination and post-exposure prophylactic antibiotic use as population-level prevention strategies for Chlamydia trachomatis infections through the use of longitudinal analyses, infectious disease modeling, and costing evaluations.

Reni Forer is a medical student at the University of Michigan. She received a Bachelor of Art from University of California, Berkeley with double majors in Cognitive Science and Molecular and Cellular Biology with a concentration in Neurobiology. She is pursuing a career in psychiatry with clinical and research interests at the intersection of psychiatry and sexual health. Reni’s Fogarty project will examine the relationship between knowledge of U=U, sexual behavior, and sexual pleasure among MSM living with HIV in Lima, Perú. Previously, Reni has worked on research regarding perinatal and child/adolescent mental health; LGBTQIA2S+ health and education; and stigma.

Aisha King is a PhD student at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy in New York City. She earned a B.A. in Psychology from Bard College and an MPH in Global Health from the University of Washington in Seattle. Aisha’s work spans HIV, mental health, reproductive health, stigma, and community health and she has experience working on projects in South Africa, Kenya, Nepal, and Spain. Her current research with the Fogarty Fellowship employs a mixed-methods design to explore healthcare providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices in Peru following the implementation of new national guidelines aimed at expanding PrEP access for key populations.