Harvard Coordinates AIDS Research in New Institute

Harvard announced on Wednesday that it has founded an AIDS Institute to coordinate University-wide research on issues surrounding the disease.

The Institute, directed by Dr. Myron E. Essex, chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at the School of Public Health (SPH), will include researchers from all of Harvard's faculities and affiliated hospitals. By coordinating different aspects of AIDS research, the Institute will help individual researchers and may encourage interested experts to begin working on AIDS-related issues, organizers said.

"In a practical sense, the people with the expertise to contribute to the problem are in many departments and schools within the University," Essex said. "There are areas of departments with people who can contribute, but there is no one department where everyone is working on AIDS."

President Bok, who has encouraged different parts of the University to participate in the Institute, said the new program would help the academic community respond to the AIDS challenge.

"AIDS is a multi-faceted problem that needs to draw on the resources of many aspects of the Harvard," Bok said yesterday. "Many able people with important contributions to make might not get involved without a structure like the Institute."

The Institute will also help draw grant money to Harvard because it is one of the few programs that will coordinate all aspects of AIDS research, from basic research to education and prevention efforts to the legal ramifications of the disease.

Lecturer in Public Policy Mark Kleiman, the Institute's coordinator at the Kennedy School, said that one of the obvious benefits of such a program is that it will attract donations from people who are specifically interested in AIDS. "It shows a commitment by the University and provides a format through which potential funders can make their commitment," he said.

The Institute's coordinators said they hope to construct a new building at the Medical Area, but for now the program will be based at the SPH.

Bok said yesterday that there is no specific monetary goal for the Institute's fundraising. Dr. Elkan R. Blout, dean for academic affairs at the School of Public Health, characterized the project as needing "tens of millions of dollars."

A policy board chaired by Bok and composed of administrators from the School of Public Health, the Medical School and affiliated hospitals will set long-term policy for the Institute, said Blout, a member of the policy board. In addition to making internal administrative decisions, the board will decide how Institute affiliates should respondto outside organizations.

There will also be an Institute Committee, madeup of doctors and researchers and chaired byEssex, which will oversee planning and operationsdecisions.

The Institute was originally conceived by Deanof the School of Public Health Dr. Harvey V.Fineberg '67. He presented the idea to Bok, whodiscussed it with Harvard's Council of Deans lastfall, Fineberg said.

Bok asked the Council to appoint coordinatorsfor the project in each of Harvard's faculties.The coordinators will identify researchers in thevarious schools and encourage new experts to beginwork on AIDS issues.

In an interview during the project's finalplanning stages, Fineberg said that the Instituteincludes five areas of research: biologicalresearch, which connects scientists in variousfields of expertise: epidemiology, which involvesthe Medical Area experts and the Departments ofMath and statistics at the Faculty of Arts andsciences: clinical research and care, whichfocuses on Harvard's teaching hospitals and theBoston AIDS Consortium, a group of many of thehealth care programs in the area; policy andeducation, which involves all areas of theUniversity; and international cooperation, whichstems from the School of Public Health andincludes health organizations in many developingnations.

The Institute will address both long- andshort-term issues. He said that the immediateissues are primarily related to critical care forhospital patients. Over the next five to 10 years,the Institute will attempt to address educationaland behavioral issues for those who have alreadycontracted AIDS. And the long-term goal, Finebergsaid, is to discover a cure.

Fundraisers for the Institute said they hope totap government funds, foundations and privatedonors. Individual AIDS research projects arecurrently funded by specific grants, but theInstitute needs to raise its own money in order tobuild the new building and fund collectiveprograms.

John F. Ramsey, associate director of theBoston Foundation, the sole funder of the BostonAIDS Consortium, which combines policy and careissues, said that there has been a recent trendtoward giving to AIDS organizations and thatdonors would be attracted by a program like theInstitute.

"Public and private donors are looking for waysto coordinate giving for maximum impact," Ramseysaid. "Coordinated and effective programs buildconfidence in donor communities."

The Institute's work will include efforts toencourage AIDS-related research in the socialsciences and to connect those scholars with theclinical and biological research at SPH and theMed School.

Professor of Law Lance M. Liebman. who willcoordinate AIDS reasearch at the Law School, saidthat he has written about employment rights forpeople who have tested positive for AIDS. The LawSchool's contribution to the Institute willinclude work on legal discrimination and healthfinance issues.

Kleiman said that his research on how policydecisions can the number of people who contractAIDS would be greatly enhanced by closer ties toother researchers. "Reading the journals aboutAIDS is getting year-old research," he said. "Thecloser I am to the most updated research, the morelikely I am to make appropriate recommendationsabout [public] policies."

AIDS will become a major issue at the KennedySchool, Kleiman said, because the issuessurrounding AIDS involve every aspect of publicpolicy decision-making.

Johns Hopkins University announced the creationof an institute similar to Harvard's in December.The Hopkins institute, which connects research andclinical care, currently includes researchers whoare receiving $52 million in grants, with $30million more coming in over the next few years.

The Hopkins institute's provisional director,Professor of Neurology Richard H. Johnson, saidthat institute also has two policy boards whichconnect the researchers and convey their findingsto legislators at local, state and federal levels.Johnson said the Hopkins organizers have alsotried to coordinate grant proposals in order toconnect researchers in several fields, thus makingthe proposals more attractive. The coordinationalso helps to prevent Hopkins researchers fromsubmitting competing proposals, he said