Monitoring HIV resistance :Through a  collaboration  Hadassah AIDS Center (HAC), the US CDC (Ethiopia)  and  EHNRI ( Ethiopian Health &Nutrition research institute)  , a project aiming at tracking  the development of  resistance to HIV in  a cohort of  150 HIV+  patients on  antiretrovirals (ARV's)  in Addis Abeba  has been started.  Initial indication suggest a rate of  10% per 6 month of  development of HIV resistance.

The  development of this cohort and the scientific conduct of this  project  has been initiated by  me at  the Hadassah AIDS Center.  It is expected that important scientific  collaborative work on HIV resistance  will be  conducted  in Israel and Ethiopia  as part of this project ,for years to come.

Pediatric AIDS: A  retrospective followup of  300 children infected by HIV  and on no antiretrovirals ,who live in an orphanage in Addis Abeba. The project is also initiated by the Hadassah AIDS Center in collaboration with the Pediatric dept. at Hadassah. This retrospective analysis is a  basis of a new  MD thesis .

It is expected that the future involvement in this Pediatric cohort in Addis Abeba  , on antiretrovirals ,will lead to fruitful scientific results.

Training  in AIDS Medicine:  Through another collaboration with the US CDC  Ethiopian branch which I've  initiated, CDC  has  launched  a training course in AIDS  Medicine to Ethiopian doctors  nurses& technicians   in Israel.(Train of Trainers "TOT"  program).This  program is a collaboration Hadassah AIDS Center and the Tel Aviv AIDS Center  and the Central Israeli  HIV Resistance laboratories at Tel Hashomer. Funding is through US-CDC . Two  training courses  which included  30 Ethiopian doctors has been completed successfully so far .Hadassah AIDS Center plays a major role in this training  program.

A new submission to CDC  for the extension of the  TOT program in Israel is expected in March07. Planning for 4 TOT courses /year for the next 3-5 years is  underway.

The development of a Center of Excellence in AIDS Medicine  at Gondar and Makele Universities, Ethiopia. Plans are underway to establish this center. An important site visit to the University of Gondar took place by members of the Israeli Consortium on AIDS Medicine(ICAM). The expected collaboration will involve, among others, the ICAM,  the  Hebrew University , Hadassah University Hospital,  U. of  Washington's  International Training& Education  Center on HIV(ITECH) and US CDC . Recent application with the Clinton Global initiative has been submitted for that end.

A new  trilateral collaboration, HAC  with the  Centre for Clinical Immunology & Biomedical Statistics, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia and the Medical Biotechnology Lab( MBL) laboratory, Addis Abeba ; Forged in 2006.

Areas of research:

1.Delineating the full length sequencing of HIV and  HLA configuration  in African  HIV+ patients of Ethiopian origin. Collaboration with the MBL laboratory, Addis Abeba.

2.Mitochondrial toxicity among  African and other non Caucasian patients on  antiretrovirals

3.Hypersensitivity reactions to Abacavir among non Caucasian patients-a clinical and molecular analysis.