Penn Nursing receives $100,000 grant for HIV research

Penn Nursing has received a $100,000 grant from the Robert I. Jacobs Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation for HIV research. The grant supports an investigation, "Youth-driven Perspectives in HIV Biomedical Prevention and Cure Research," led by José A. Bauermeister, PhD, MPH, Presidential Professor of Nursing.

Adolescents and young adults (ages 15-24), particularly Black and Latinx gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (YGBMSM), are disproportionally infected with HIV in the United States. Unfortunately, daily oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake and adherence have been poor in these populations, highlighting the need to continue developing and promoting alternative biomedical HIV prevention strategies.

Bauermeister's study seeks to highlight sexual minority youths' perspectives on the design and delivery of next generation HIV prevention and cure biomedical products. Key to this project is the integration of a team of Philadelphia-area youth co-investigators who will be hired and trained to participate equitably with the Penn research team on this initiative.

We thank Philadelphia Foundation for its support of this important research. Through this initiative, we will ask Philadelphia youth to help create and analyze the data and propose youth-driven policy recommendations for true social transformation within HIV biomedical research.

José A. Bauermeister, PhD, MPH, Presidential Professor of Nursing