Joint NIMH NeuroHIV Centers Weekly Seminar Series
The Joint NIMH Center Seminar Series is presented weekly by the JH CAHN Administrative Core in partnership with the NIMH and participating centers:
- Weill Cornell Medicine and Rutgers Health- New York-New Jersey Center for Actionable NeuroHIV Biomarkers (NYJ-CAN-BIO)
- University of California San-Diego HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center
- Temple University Comprehensive NeuroHIV Center
- University of Pennsylvania Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center
Each Wednesday, trainees, junior and senior scientists share their work with colleagues interested in neuro-HIV from across the United States and abroad. Seminars are held virtually on Zoom at 12 p.m. Eastern.
2026 – 2027 Seminar Series
The 2026 – 2027 fall session of the series begins Wednesday, September 16, 2026, and ends December 16, 2026. Please sign up for the series – it’s free! You will receive the Zoom link and a weekly email announcement about that week’s speaker and topic.
Present at a Seminar
We are now scheduling presenters for the 2026-2027 seminar series. Present your neuro-HIV and mental health research, and receive feedback from a global community of colleagues.
- Speakers are asked to present for approximately 40-45 minutes followed by a moderated, interactive Q&A and discussion
- Trainees and junior scientists are encouraged to present with a colleague or mentor.
Visit the seminar calendar to see open dates and reserve your spot to present:
Fall 2026 Seminar Series Schedule
| Date | Presentation Title/Topic | Speaker(s) |
|---|---|---|
| September 16 | Updates from the Comprehensive NeuroHIV Center (CNHC): Cognitive phenotypes and community partnerships | Kate Devlin, Ph.D., Drexel University |
| September 23 | Brain Health Beyond Antiretrovirals: What Multimodal Lifestyle Interventions Can Teach Us About Preventing and Treating Cognitive Decline in HIV | Majid Fotuhi, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University |
| September 30 | Brain control of walking in older adults with HIV | Roee Holtzer, Yeshiva University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
| October 7 | Long COVID and the Brain: Emerging Neuropathologic Mechanisms | Alba Azola, M.D., Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
| October 14 | I Just Can’t Get You Out of My Head: Proteomic and Neuroimaging Alterations in Acute HIV | Jennifer V Chavez, M.P.H., C.P.H., Florida International University |
| October 21 | Title TBA | Wenzhe Ho, M.D., M.P.H., Temple University School of Medicine |
| October 28 | Waste management in neurodegenerative diseases | Dianne Langford, Ph.D., Virtua Health College of Medicine and Life Sciences at Rowan University |
| November 4 | Title TBA | Sarah M. Murray, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., Johns Hopkins CHIMES |
| November 11 | Allosteric Modulators of Dopamine Transporter as Therapeutic Agents for NeuroAIDS | Corinne E. Augelli-Szafran, Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham |
| November 18 | No seminar – Society for Neuroscience (SfN) | |
| November 25 | No seminar – Thanksgiving | |
| December 2 | Title TBA | Payal Patel, M.D., University of Washington |
| December 9 | Title TBA | Jay McLaughlin, University of Florida |
| December 16 | sc-SEQ of sorted brain-regional microglia | David Volsky, Ph.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
| December 23 | No seminar – Holidays | |
| December 30 | No seminar – Holidays | |
Past Seminar Recordings
Flipping the Script: Multilevel Mechanisms Linking Methamphetamine Use and HIV | Adam Carrico, Ph.D., A.B.P.P. (5/20/26)
Increasing NAAG Restores Cognitive Deficit in a Murine Model of HIV | Mei Huang, M.D., Ph.D.; Targeting Gender-Specific Gut Microbiota Improves Social and Cognitive Impairments in EcoHIV-Infected Mice | Yannan Li, M.D., Ph.D. (4/29/26)
Evidence for Cortical GABA Stabilization in Cognitively Intact Oldest-Old Adults | Eric Porges, Ph.D. (4/22/26)
Persistence of HIV in CD4+ T cells: Insights from Clonality | Annukka (Annie) Antar, M.D., Ph.D. (4/15/26)
High-Resolution Pan-viral Antibody Profiling and Brain Health in People with HIV | Patricia “Katie” Riggs, D.O. (4/1/26)
Neurophysiological Markers of Elevated Inflammation and Cognitive Impairment in People with HIV | Tony Wilson, Ph.D. (3/25/26)
Neuroimaging of Lyme Disease | Cherie Marvel, Ph.D. (3/18/26)
EphB2-ephrin-B1 Signaling in Microglia and Implications for NeuroHIV | Marcus Kaul, Ph.D. (3/4/26)
Aging, Microglial Glutaminase, and Neurodegenerative Disorders | Jialin C. Zheng, M.D. (2/18/26)
HIV, Cannabis use, and Macrophage Phenotype | Jerel Adam Fields, Ph.D. (2/4/26)
Redefining HIV Persistence: The Role of Monocytes and Macrophages as a Latent Reservoir | Rebecca Veenhuis, Ph.D. (1/28/26)
B Cells at the Blood–Brain Interface: A Legacy of Immune Dysregulation in Treated HIV Infection | Paraskevas (Paris) Filippidis, M.D. (1/21/26)
Does Executive Functioning Training Improve Cognitive Inconsistency and Dispersion in Middle-aged and Older Adults with HIV? | David E. Vance, Ph.D., MGS, FAAN (12/17/25)
Adenosine, Guardian of the Brain: Possible Role in Protecting from HIV Neuropathogenesis | Yoelvis Garcia-Mesa, Ph.D. (12/3/25)
The Intersection of HIV-1 and Extracellular Vesicle Research | Anastasia Williams and Sebastian Molnar (11/12/25)
Leveraging Wearable Technology for Disability Monitoring in People with Neurological Conditions | Kate Fitzgerald (10/29/25)
EcoHIV Infection Facilitates Alzheimer's Disease progression in Mouse Models | Boe-hyun Kim, Ph.D. (10/22/25)
Systems-Level Vulnerabilities in Opioid Use Disorder: Psychosocial, Cognitive, and Neural Correlates | Paul Regier, Ph.D. (10/15/25)
Biological aging, brain imaging and cognitive impairment in persons with HIV | Kalen Petersen, Ph.D. (10/1/25)
Mitochondrial DNA copy number and cognitive impairments among people with and without HIV | Jing Sun, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. (9/24/25)
The Impact of Methamphetamine on Macrophages: Contributions to HIV Neuropathogenesis | Jessica Weiselberg (5/21/25)
Risk of Stroke in Diabetes and HIV Infection: New Therapeutic Targets and Treatment Strategies | Tauheed Ishrat, Ph.D. (5/14/25)
Prevalence and Clinical Significance of CSF Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers | Erin Sundermann, Ph.D. and Lilly Ham (4/30/25)
Can HIV-1 infection affect the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s disease? | Howard Gendelman, M.D. (4/23/25)
HIV Antiretroviral Drugs Trigger Stress Granule Formation in Differentiating Oligodendrocytes | Eliana Von Krusenstiern (4/16/25)
Novel drug delivery modality to suppress HIV neuropathogenesis | Santosh Kumar, Ph.D. (4/2/25)
Antiretroviral Drugs Differentially Affect Autophagy in Primary Human Astrocytes | Laura Cheney, M.D., Ph.D. (3/19/25)
Beyond the Virus: How ART and Non-ART Drugs Shape Neuropsychiatric Health in people with HIV | Yanxun Xu, Ph.D. and Eero Korpela (3/5/25)
The Last Gift Program: Lessons learned from altruistic participants enrolled in HIV Cure research | Sara Gianella Weibel, M.D. (2/26/25)
Neuroinflammatory Brain Injury in HIV Infection with cART | Marcus Kaul, Ph.D. (2/12/25)
Clinical Trials of Therapy for Brain Health Disorders in Persons with HIV | Scott Letendre, M.D. (2/5/25)
Understanding Psychosocial and Behavioral Constructs Related to PrEP Interest Among Trans-Masculine People Assigned Female at Birth | Ari Gzesh, MSW, Ph.D. Candidate (1/27/25)
Harnessing Public Multi-omics data to Discover Shared Mechanisms in Neuroinflammation | Carlo Colantuoni, Ph.D. (1/15/25)
Drug Analysis One-Stop Shop: A comprehensive spectra library for drug and metabolites developed with public metabolomics data | Nina Zhao, Ph.D. (1/8/25)
Leveraging Redox Dysregulation to Target Latent HIV Infection| Luca Shytaj, Ph.D. (12/18/24)
Joint Effects of Methamphetamine and HIV on Brain Connectivity | Judith Lobo Ph.D. (12/11/24)
Uncovering a Novel Molecular Therapeutic Target for HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Impairment | Reina Bendayan, Pharm.D., FAAPS, FCSPS, FCAHS (11/20/2024)
The Blood Brain Barrier Demonstrates Capability to Influence Heterogenous Tenofovir and Emtricitabine Metabolism and Transport in the Brain | Hannah Wilkins, M.S., Ph.D. Candidate (11/6/2024)
Giving HAND a Helping Hand: A Role for Neuroimaging | Beau Ances, M.D., Ph.D. (10/23/2024)
Brain Macrophages and Amyloid: 35 years of NeuroHIV Research | Cristian Achim, M.D., Ph.D. (10/16/2024)
Cumulative Burden of Depression and Domain-Specific Cognitive Impairment in the Women's Interagency HIV Study: A Marginal Structural Model Approach | César Higgins Tejera, Ph.D. (9/25/2024)
Suicide Risk Reduction Among People with HIV | Lily Brown, Ph.D. (11/8/23)
miRNA Export, Transport and Uptake via Extracellular Vesicles in Mammalian Cells | Suvendra Bhattacharyya, Ph.D. (11/1/23)
Brain N-acetyl-Aspartyl-Glutamate (NAAG) is Positively Associated with Cognitive Function | Robyn Wiseman, Ph.D. Candidate; Tryptophan-Kynurenine Pathway Activation and Daytime Disruption in Women with HIV | Eran Shorer, M.D. (10/25/23)
October 18, 2023: "Acidic Nanoparticles Prevent HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) Inhibition of Oligodendrocyte Maturation" Caela Long, PhD Candidate
October 11, 2023: "Measuring Routine and Behavioral Variability Through Smartphone-based Digital Phenotyping" Ian Barnett, PhD
September 27, 2023: "Proviral Location Affects Virus Production and Immune Recognition of HIV-1–infected T cell Clones" Francesco Simonetti, MD, PhD
April 5, 2023: "Dolutegravir inhibits oligodendrocyte differentiation through activation of the integrated stress response" Marisa Jeffries, PhD and “What have we learnt from the RV254 Thai acute HIV cohort” Philip Chan, PhD
March 22, 2023: "Osteopontin promotes cardiac fibrosis in HIV infection" Jake Robinson
March 8, 2023: "Broadly neutralizing anti-HIV antibodies (bNAb) and the CNS" Lucio Gama, PhD
March 1, 2023: "Human microglia phenotypes in the brain associated with HIV infection" Johannes Schlachetzki, MD
February 8, 2023: “Neurologic post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 preliminary findings and directions for future research” Lindsay McAlpine, MD; and "Single Copy HIV and Neurodegeneration, Oxidative Stress, and Neuroinflammation" Albert Anderson, MD
February 1, 2023: "Why do white matter dysfunction and myelin loss persist in HIV+ individuals despite effective antiretroviral therapy?" Judith Grinspan, PhD
January 18, 2023: "Establishing iPSC derived models to study HIV latency and microglia phenotypes" Sheetal Sreeram
January 11, 2023: “Multimodal MRI evidence of frontostriatal alterations in HIV and aging” Shiva Hassanzadeh-Behbahani, PhD; and “Cerebrospinal fluid virome in ART-treated adult people living with HIV” Mattia Trunfio, PhD Candidate
Progressive Neurocognitive Impairments and Neuronal Injury Resulting From Chronic HIV-1 Viral Protein Exposure
The Self-Serving Side of Astrocytes: It’s All About ME!
Choices in HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis: Today, Tomorrow, and Over-the-Horizon
Mitochondrial Alterations in HIV- and ART-Associated Neurotoxicity
Lysosomal De-acidification by the Antiretroviral Bictegravir Inhibits Oligodendrocyte Maturation
Lentiviral infections persist in brain despite effective antiretroviral therapy and neuroimmune activation