Dr. Christian Grov awarded grant for PrEP study

Black women are disproportionally impacted by HIV—in 2015, 61% of women diagnosed with HIV were Black; whereas, Black women comprise 12% of women in the US. In 2012, the FDA approved the use of once-daily Truvada® in HIV-negative adults as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) (i.e., taking a pill once-a-day results in a near zero risk of HIV infection). PrEP uptake among at-risk Black women has been low. In an effort to close this gap, Dr. Grov and his fellow researchers will conduct participatory focus groups with at-risk Black women to gather insights on (1) knowledge, (2) attitudes, (3) barriers, and (4) likelihood of use of PrEP, as well as perceived effective (5) dissemination strategies. These pilot data will be the basis of a future NIH application to develop and test a culturally-responsive intervention to increase PrEP uptake—a high priority area for NIH funding. Consistent with the CUNY-IRG mechanism, the research team is lead via partnership between a junior (Dr. Koken) and senior (Dr. Grov) faculty member, as well as two additional co-investigators (Drs. Brown and Bimbi) who collectively possess complementary skills to ensure the success of this proposal.

Congratulations Dr. Grov!