The University of North Dakota school of medicine has received a substantial federal grant to deal with neurological complications of HIV/AIDS.
The five year, $1.45 million dollar grant was actually the second of its kind awarded to the school by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Jonathan Geiger is one of the two lead researchers in this project.
“Both of these grants are focused on studying what we think are unique mechanisms that control levels of calcium inside of nerves, that we think are part of the problem in terms of the neurological complications that are associated with HIV infection.”
Complications – such as dementia and motor skill difficulties. Geiger says in the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, the complications were severe, and 20 percent of those affected could expect those effects. But he says those severe complications have just about disappeared.
“But in its place, about 50 percent of all infected people are experiencing less severe, but also neurological, complications.”
Geiger says some of the new HIV/AIDS drugs that keep people alive longer may be causing some of the problems with calcium. But he says others aren’t.
“Ultimately, we hope that therapeutic regimens can be modified and designed to help people that are experiencing age-related disorders, or art at risk of experiencing these age-related disorders. At the same time, we can maintain the viral control – the virus replication control.”
Geiger says NIH funds only the top 10 percent of grant requests.
"So anybody that receives a single grant – they’re in the top 10 percent of researchers nationwide, and even internationally, because people outside the United States can also apply.”
Geiger says the award is a feather in UND’s cap. And he says it allows researchers to do important work.