The Overbaugh lab is an integral part of the Kenya Research Program, which includes investigators with diverse expertise, including researchers and clinicians in Seattle at Fred Hutch and the University of Washington and in Kenya, at the University of Nairobi and a variety of other research institutions and hospitals.
This collaborative team has worked together for more than two decades, pioneering the concept of interdisciplinary, international HIV research. The team has published more than 400 peer-reviewed publications during that time and remains at the forefront of collaborative international HIV research.
This interdisciplinary research effort was forged by Joan Kreiss, an epidemiologist and clinician who first described the spread of HIV-1 in East Africa in 1985 and Julie Overbaugh, who joined forces with the Kreiss team in 1993. Since its inception, a major focus of the team has been on mentoring, and multiple faculty within the KRP have won mentoring awards, including several former trainees of Drs. Kreiss and Overbaugh such as Grace John-Stewart, who now leads the University of Washington program.