The WHO designation is anchored by the work of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Joe Tucker, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, and Elizabeth Chen, PhD, MPH, associate professor of health behavior, will co-direct the center, with leadership from Weiming Tang, PhD.

Building on Leadership in Behavioral Science and Innovations in Human-Centered Design

Social innovation in health focuses on community-led, locally adapted solutions that strengthen health systems and expand access to care. UNC’s approach is informed by the work of Tucker and Tang, who are co-directors of UNC Project-China, and have pioneered behavioral science and crowdsourcing approaches to address complex global health challenges.

Left to right: Joe Tucker, Liz Chen and Weiming Tang

“This center will reflect a growing recognition that equity requires new models of engagement,” explained Tucker.  “By working alongside communities, policymakers, and practitioners, we can accelerate solutions that are both evidence-based and grounded in lived experience.”

Tucker and Tang apply behavioral science and crowdsourcing methods—such as open calls, designathons, and community-generated ideas—to expand participation in infectious disease research and accelerate innovation. Tucker’s research has contributed to several World Health Organization guidelines, and he serves as a member of the TDR Global Working Group.

The new center is also grounded in the work of Dr. Chen, who is focused on ways to integrate design thinking mindsets and methodologies into public health training, practice, and research.

“Communities are already innovating to solve urgent health challenges,” said Chen. “Our role is to partner with them—bringing rigorous methods, global networks, and sustained support to help these solutions reach more people.”

Chen serves as the Design Thinking Lead for Innovate Carolina. She co-founded the tech nonprofit MyHealthEd, Inc., with a mission to use human-centered design to improve the health and well-being of youth of every identity. Its first product “Real Talk” is a mobile app that uses real stories by real teens to convey relevant and credible information about health topics to teens and reassures them that they are not alone.

The team’s combined strengths in behavioral science, community engagement, and implementation research will enable the center to test and scale solutions that are both scientifically rigorous and grounded in local context–positioning UNC to lead globally in advancing community-driven health solutions.

Global Partnerships

Designated by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and WHO, the UNC center will serve as a hub for advancing social innovation in health across the Americas and globally. It will collaborate closely with PAHO country offices, WHO programs, and a network of academic and community partners. Initial efforts will focus on strengthening vaccination uptake, expanding access to sexual and reproductive health services and advancing digital health innovations for underserved populations.

Core priorities will include co-creation and community engagement, using participatory approaches such as crowdsourcing, designathons, and community-led research; evidence generation and scale-up, evaluating and adapting innovations across diverse settings; capacity strengthening, training early-career researchers, practitioners, and community leaders; and
policy translation, supporting integration of proven solutions into health systems.

The center will be part of a global network of academic hubs working to scale community-driven solutions. Through this network, UNC will contribute tools, case studies, and best practices to support countries worldwide.

People interested in signing up for more information about the WHO CC can contact manager Yanqi Wang at yanqwang@unc.edu. Read the University announcement.

The post UNC Designation as ‘WHO Collaborating Center on Social Innovation’ Anchored by Global Health Research Expertise appeared first on Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.

Jessica Lin speaking in Washington, D.C., at the NAM Emerging Leaders Forum.

Jessica Lin, MD, MSCR, a researcher with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, was invited to participate in the National Academy of Medicine’s Emerging Leaders Forum in April, bringing one of the world’s most persistent health challenges into sharp focus—malaria as a critical issue of global equity.

In a compelling presentation in Washington, D.C., Lin recognized the continued burden of malaria, with an estimated 282 million cases and 650,000 deaths reported in 2024. While major progress has eliminated the disease from many parts of the world, she emphasized that malaria remains deeply entrenched in under-resourced settings, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable populations.

Drawing on her expertise in infectious disease epidemiology, Lin outlined both the progress and the challenges that continue to shape the fight against malaria. These include growing drug and insecticide resistance, limitations of current vaccines, and the role of asymptomatic “invisible” transmission. She also pointed to the increasing influence of climate change, migration, and conflict in reshaping where and how malaria spreads.

“There is no single solution to malaria elimination,” said Lin, associate professor of medicine. “What is needed is a coordinated, adaptable approach tailored to specific regions and populations.”

Her talk reinforced the importance of sustained scientific innovation paired with context-driven strategies.

Advancing Equity Through Collaboration

In addition, Lin led a breakout session that examined how global health research can advance equity in resource-limited settings—particularly in light of recent policy shifts that threaten to widen disparities in access to care and research benefits.

She contributed expertise on malaria transmission and the broader determinants that shape infectious disease risk, emphasizing that meaningful progress will require not only scientific discovery, but also investments in local capacity, stronger health systems, and partnerships that empower communities across the Global South.

The session brought together leaders from across disciplines to explore solutions that ranged from medical service delivery innovations to genetic research, climate-conscious health interventions, and training for early-career clinicians and scientists.

The post Lin Brings Focus to Persistent Threat to Global Health Equity appeared first on Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.

Ethics, Reciprocal Innovation, and Alumni Achievement

Left to right: Rachel Ogumbo Sillah, Ruth Dudding, Michael Herce, Yenupini Joyce Adams, Claudia Herrera, Benjamin Chi

The UJMT Fogarty Global Health Fellowship Program, also known as UJMT LAUNCH, led multiple sessions that underscored the importance of ethics, reciprocal learning, and real-world impact. Directed by Benjamin Chi, MD, MPH, the program sponsored a skills-based workshop, hosted a thematic panel and participated in the LAUNCH alumni panel.

“Giving Voice to Values,” a skills-based workshop adapted from the book by Mary C. Gentile, equipped participants with practical strategies for acting on their values when navigating real world ethical challenges. The session emphasized responding with confidence and clarity, facilitated by Bhakti Hansoti, MBCHB, MPH (associate professor of emergency medicine, infectious diseases, and international health, at Johns Hopkins University, and associate director of the Hopkins Center for Global Health) and Nikita Boston-Fischer, MPH, PMP, MCHES (associate director, Laidley Centre for Business Ethics & Equity, McGill University).

UJMT also hosted a thematic panel on “Reciprocal Learning and Innovation,” exploring how evidence-based solutions developed in global health settings can inform and improve health outcomes across diverse contexts. Facilitated by Dr. Chi, the panel examined topics including mental health, emerging infections, nutrition, and maternal and child health. Panelists included Michael Herce, MD; Yenupini Joyce Adams, PhD; Ruth Dudding, CHES, CHW; Claudia Herrera, PhD; and Rachel Ogumbo Sillah, PharmD.

Melissa Issa Boube discussed her research in Malawi.

The impact of UJMT alumni was highlighted during the LAUNCH Alumni Panel. Melissa Issa Boube, a predoctoral trainee in the 2024–2025 cohort based at UNC Project–Malawi, shared insights from her research on the availability of allogenic packed red blood cells in Malawi. Conducted under the mentorship of Charles Mabedi, MD, and Anthony Charles, MD, MPH, her work has been published in the Journal of Surgical Research, demonstrating the program’s emphasis on mentored research with tangible global impact.

UJMT is a consortium that includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Johns Hopkins University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and Tulane University, bringing together universities and their respective international research training sites in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Sponsored by the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the UJMT D43 program supports U.S. pre- and post-doctoral trainees, along with LMIC post-doctoral fellows, in one-year mentored global research training experiences.

Trainee research projects are supported by mentors with expertise in clinical, public health, laboratory, and implementation research. Each trainee works with a team of mentors, including at least one U.S. and one international member to monitor the trainee’s progress and provide on-site supervision.

Advancing Dialogue, U.S. – China Collaboration

Joe Tucker leads panel discussion.

The China Medical Board (CMB) Foundation Fellowship, directed by Joe Tucker, MD, PhD, hosted its fourth consecutive panel at CUGH 2026. U.S. and Chinese scholars, trainees, and academic leaders convened to discuss why continued academic exchange with China remains vital. For more than four decades, China has been a key partner in global health research, yet training opportunities for U.S. scholars remain underutilized.

The CMB Foundation panel highlighted why sustained academic exchange remains essential—and how emerging scholars can engage meaningfully in this work. The session highlighted current training opportunities and featured voices from trainees with recent research experiences in China, faculty with long-standing collaborations, and leaders from Chinese partner institutions.

Tom Fitzpatrick, CMB Foundation Fellow, also presented.

Tom Fitzpatrick, MD, a current CMB Foundation Fellow, shared insights from his work on HIV and STI prevention and testing. UNC alumni Larry Han, PhD (assistant professor of Biostatistics in Public Health and Health Sciences, Northeastern University) and Dorian Ho, BSPH, also presented research conducted in collaboration with CMB faculty. Tucker discussed U.S.-China research collaboration from a U.S. faculty perspective, emphasizing the long-term importance of partnerships in accelerating scientific discovery and addressing shared global health challenges.

The CMB Foundation Fellowship in China focuses on fostering sustained U.S.–China research collaboration through joint training and research opportunities. While China has been a key partner in global health research for decades, relatively few American trainees pursue training at top Chinese academic centers—a gap the CMB Foundation aims to address by supporting a new generation of cross-border collaborators.

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(UNC Global Affairs Excerpt)

Myron Cohen, MD (third from right)  Credit: Huth Photo

Cohen is widely known for his research on HIV/AIDS, which he began studying more than 40 years ago. At the time, knowledge about the virus was limited, and research on its transmission and possible treatment was emerging.

In 2011, Cohen and his colleagues conducted a clinical trial in nine countries, including at Carolina’s research site in Malawi under the leadership of Mina Hosseinipour ’04 (MPH). The landmark study showed that early treatment, with antiretroviral therapy, reduced sexual transmission of HIV by at least 96 percent, proving that “treatment as prevention” was a viable public health strategy.

Cohen’s expertise in infectious diseases has extended to other pressing global health challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, he helped develop the NIH COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network, which connected researchers across 55 clinical sites in 15 countries to coordinate large-scale prevention studies and accelerate global response.

Nominators said Cohen has “fundamentally reshaped global HIV policy and practice” and that he has helped UNC-Chapel Hill become “one of the world’s great research universities.”

Throughout his career, Cohen has authored more than 1,400 publications and accumulated more than 150,000 citations. His federally funded work has also spanned tuberculosis, immunology, cardiovascular disease and cancer. He has received continuous NIH funding for more than 30 years and helped bring more than $100 million in research funding to Carolina.

“What sets Carolina apart as a place for global research and medical discovery is the faculty’s commitment to UNC for the duration of their careers, allowing for the growth of ideas and, probably more importantly, unlimited collaborations across the entire campus,” Cohen said.

He has collaborated with hundreds of researchers around the world, and trained hundreds of students, fellows and early-career researchers. When asked about what he has learned most from others around the world, Cohen said, “leadership.” Many of those he has trained now hold leadership positions at their own institutions. This summer, Cohen plans to step down from the leadership positions he holds at the University to focus on his teaching and research.

Read more from UNC Global Affairs. Watch a video featuring Cohen [1:58, 3:30, 4:36]

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Elizabeth Arant, MD, (infectious diseases) and Esteban Calderon, MD (abdominal transplant surgeon)

“Previously, people with HIV weren’t allowed to be organ donors. The HOPE Act changed that by allowing organs from donors with HIV to go to recipients with well‑controlled HIV, first under research, and the data have been really reassuring,” said Elizabeth Arant, MD, infectious disease physician at UNC. “Outcomes for patients who receive kidneys from donors with HIV are comparable to those receiving organs from donors without HIV. This means a whole pool of organs that used to be discarded, can now be used, and this cuts months to years off the wait time for transplants.”

The HOPE Act

The HIV Organ Policy Equity Act (HOPE), enacted in 2013 and implemented in 2015, authorized transplantation of organs from donors with HIV to recipients with well‑controlled HIV under research protocols at select U.S. centers. Over the subsequent decade, multi‑site trials demonstrated that kidney outcomes for recipients of organs from donors with HIV were comparable to those for organs from donors without HIVs, with no clinically significant increase in HIV superinfection or adverse graft outcomes. Trials also showed that people with HIV who did not receive HIV‑positive donor organs waited an average of about 60 months on the transplant list, while HOPE recipients of HIV‑positive kidneys waited roughly 10 months. Recent policy changes have allowed kidney transplants from donors with HIV to move out of research and into standard clinical practice, enabling centers like UNC to integrate HOPE organs into routine transplant pathways.

The First Patient

The first UNC patient, referred in mid‑2025 with HIV‑associated kidney disease, illustrates this progress. After beginning evaluation in October 2025, the patient was approved and listed in early 2026, receiving a HOPE kidney offer just six weeks later—an outcome that, before HOPE, might have required years on dialysis and the waitlist.

“This is one of the rare situations where having HIV can actually be an advantage on the waitlist, because only a small group of patients is eligible to receive these organs,” said Arant an assistant professor of medicine. “We’re taking organs that previously would have been discarded and using them to save lives.”

Karin True, MD, and Chirag Desai, MD

UNC Health’s Kidney Transplant team—led by Alex Toledo, MD, surgical director of kidney transplant; Chirag Desai, MD, division chief of abdominal transplant; and Karin True, MD, the medical director—launched the HOPE Kidney Program with Infectious Diseases, in close collaboration with a growing robotic kidney transplant initiative. That effort is led by Esteban Calderon, MD, an abdominal transplant surgeon who joined UNC Health in 2024 to establish the robotic program, who also performed UNC’s first HIV‑positive–to–HIV‑positive kidney transplant, drawing on prior HOPE trial experience.

“Both of our recent HIV‑positive to HIV‑positive kidney transplants have been done robotically,” Calderon said. “A traditional kidney transplant incision is quite large. With robotic surgery, the incisions are much smaller, there is less post-operative pain, therefore recovery is easier and patients are often going home just a couple of days after their transplant. Our first HOPE kidney recipient is already doing great—when I last saw him in clinic, he was making three liters of urine a day after not making any before and was off dialysis with a working graft.”

HOPE kidneys offer an additional advantage: they are often low Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) organs, meaning their donor characteristics predict longer graft longevity compared with most kidneys transplanted in the prior year. Organs of this quality are typically reserved for very young or pediatric recipients; through the HOPE pathway, however, some older patients with HIV are receiving exceptionally high‑quality kidneys earlier in the course of their disease.

“The advantage of HOPE kidneys is not only that patients are transplanted much faster—often in months—they’re receiving very high‑quality kidneys that previously would have gone only to very young or pediatric recipients,” said Calderon.

UNC’s Executive Medical Director for UNC Healthcare Center for Transplant Care, Chirag S. Desai, MD, has encouraged expanding robotic HOPE kidney use to further minimize occupational risk while broadening access for patients.

“A major advantage of combining HOPE kidneys with robotics is that there’s very little direct manipulation of blood and tissue, which reduces the risk of needle sticks or blood exposure for the care team—an important consideration when donors may have high viral loads,” Calderon said.

Screening Patients

Arant and the HIV infectious diseases team work closely with nephrology and surgery to review each donor and recipient pair. They assess HIV histories, antiretroviral regimens and any concern for opportunistic infections, to ensure that each recipient’s HIV therapy will fully cover any potential new viral strain and keep the risk of HIV “superinfection” extremely low.

The program, True emphasizes, benefits both sides of the transplant equation.

“HOPE transplants don’t just benefit recipients; they create equitable access to donation, said True. “People with HIV can now be organ donors in a meaningful way, when previously that wasn’t allowed. It’s a powerful way for our patients to contribute to the lives of others.”

The Future

While UNC is currently focused on kidney transplants, national HOPE experience suggests that HIV‑positive organs may also have a large impact on other solid organ transplantation, where patients are often critically ill and lack a “backup” like dialysis.

“For now, we’re focused on making sure every eligible patient knows the option for a HOPE kidney exists,” True said. “The broader message is that HIV should no longer be seen as an automatic barrier to advanced care. With the right team and safeguards, patients with HIV can do just as well after transplant—and, in many cases, get to transplant much sooner. For the individual patient, that difference is enormous—less time on dialysis, better long‑term kidney function, and more years of life.”

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Kyangwali Refugee Camp, Uganda (Credit: Beth Heckel, Think Humanity)

Malaria remains a threat to young children in refugee settlements, where displacement, temporary housing, and limited access to healthcare reduce the effectiveness of conventional prevention tools. There are an estimated 35 million refugees in Africa alone with women and children comprising more than 80% of those displaced. New arrivals lack permanent shelter, and therefore cannot reliably use bed nets—leaving infants and young children vulnerable to mosquito bites.

Ross Boyce, MD, MSc, a researcher with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the UNC School of Medicine, will lead a three-year study in collaboration with partners at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, evaluating a proven malaria prevention strategy tailored to humanitarian settings–supported by the Thrasher Research Fund.

The study will test permethrin-treated baby wraps, an innovation that transforms a cultural caregiving practice—mothers carrying infants on their backs using cloth wraps—into a protective barrier against malaria-carrying mosquitoes. The approach builds on strong clinical evidence. In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial conducted in western Uganda published in The New England Journal of Medicine (2025), Boyce found that infants carried in permethrin-treated wraps experienced approximately a 65% reduction in clinical malaria incidence, even bed net use. The results demonstrated meaningful protection beyond nets alone, particularly against outdoor and daytime mosquito exposure.

“As global funding of humanitarian emergencies declines, newly arrived refugees are increasingly left to build their own shelters. If you don’t have a bed, let alone a roof over your head, it’s difficult to hang a bed net,” said Dr. Boyce, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology. “By building protection into something mothers already use every day, we can reach infants at the moments and places they’re most exposed.”

Embedding insect repellent into an item that families already use daily means the intervention requires no behavioral change, minimal infrastructure, and is well suited to resource-constrained, high-risk environments. Boyce is also hopeful that the repellency effect of the treated wrap might provide some protection to other members of the family, especially if they sleep close together.

Study Overview

To assess feasibility and effectiveness in humanitarian contexts, researchers will launch a Phase III, double-blind, randomized controlled trial in the Kyangwali Refugee Settlement in western Uganda. The settlement is home to roughly 150,000 refugees, primarily women and children displaced by conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The three-year study (2026–2029) will enroll 450 recently arrived mother–infant pairs and compare three strategies: factory-treated, long-lasting permethrin wraps designed to retain repellency without re-treatment; wraps soaked in a 0.5% permethrin solution, a low-cost and locally feasible option; and untreated wraps serving as the control group

Children will be followed for six months, a period when families are most likely to lack stable housing and consistent mosquito protection. Outcomes will include malaria incidence, hospitalizations, safety, adherence, and user acceptability to evaluate both effectiveness and real-world applicability.

Locally Led Partnerships

The study draws on more than a decade of collaborative malaria research. Community engagement and field operations are supported by the Peoples’ Health and Economic Development Organization (PHEALED), a Ugandan non-governmental organization with extensive experience in refugee and rural health programs.

Clinical activities will be conducted in collaboration with local health facilities operated by Medical Teams International in partnership with the Uganda Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) , ensuring alignment with existing care systems and supporting sustainability beyond the study period. Funding provided by the Thrasher Research Fund supports innovative, child-focused global health solutions.

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Sarah Rutstein, MD, PhD

Sarah Rutstein, MD, PhD, and Thibaut Davy‑Mendez, PhD, MSPH, with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases have received an R01 from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their multi-year award, entitled Leveraging Inpatient records to characterize the HIV Care continuum in North Carolina (LINC-NC), focuses on a moment that often gets overlooked in HIV care–what happens after someone with HIV leaves the hospital.

While many efforts have tried to improve linkage to care after discharge, success has been limited. One major reason is that past studies relied on fragmented or incomplete data—looking at only one health system, capturing a single moment in time, or lacking enough detail to understand the complex factors that shape a person’s ability to stay in care.

This project takes a different approach.

“Hospitalization is often a missed opportunity to engage or re‑engage people with HIV into outpatient care,” said Rutstein, assistant professor of infectious diseases. “Our study will take a comprehensive, statewide approach—bringing together clinical data, public health surveillance, and community perspectives—to better understand what happens after discharge and how we can improve long‑term outcomes for people with HIV.”

A Clearer Picture Across North Carolina

The team will bring together data that for the first time shows the full HIV care journey for people hospitalized with HIV across North Carolina. The study will combine electronic health record data from three of the state’s largest health systems (UNC, Duke Health, and Wake Forest/Atrium Health) with statewide HIV surveillance data—including viral load information—from 2018 to 2024.

Thibaut Davy-Mendez, PhD

Using highly accurate, privacy‑protecting data‑matching techniques, people with HIV will be matched across these sources without sharing sensitive identifying information. The study will include 34 hospitals that care for roughly 80% of hospitalized people with HIV in North Carolina and draw from more than 600 inpatient and outpatient sites across all 100 counties.

This statewide view will allow researchers to see what’s happening before hospitalization, what care people receive during their hospital stay, and whether—and how—people successfully reconnect to HIV care after discharge. Differences in care outcomes across hospitals will help guide the qualitative part of the study, ensuring perspectives are gathered where challenges—and successes—are most evident.

“By integrating data across multiple health systems and pairing it with insights from patients, providers, and community organizations, this project will identify actionable targets for strengthening linkage to HIV care,” said Davy-Mendez. “Our goal is to generate evidence that can inform practical, scalable interventions and support more equitable HIV care across North Carolina.”

The resulting dataset will include information from more than 600 inpatient and outpatient sites across all 100 counties and approximately 34 hospitals—facilities that collectively care for about 80% of hospitalized people with HIV in North Carolina. Innovative data‑matching methods will be used to protect patient privacy while still allowing researchers to track key outcomes such as linkage to care, retention, and viral suppression.

Why Linkage to Care Matters

Linkage to HIV care—typically defined as completing an initial visit with an HIV medical provider soon after diagnosis or a healthcare encounter—is a critical step in the HIV care continuum. Timely linkage gives people access to antiretroviral therapy, improves individual health outcomes, and dramatically reduces HIV transmission at the population level.

This study aligns with national priorities, including the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative, which emphasizes rapid linkage to care and long‑term retention as essential strategies for reducing new HIV infections and improving quality of life for people with HIV. At the conclusion of the study, investigators expect to have identified optimal targets and potential interventions for future testing to facilitate improved post-discharge HIV linkage outcomes for persons with HIV in North Carolina and beyond.

The post Turning a Hospital Stay into a Meaningful Bridge Back to HIV Care appeared first on Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.

1. UNC has a long history of working in Vietnam. What do you think makes the partnership successful?

Phan Thi Thu Huong, MD, PhD

“While the formal partnership between UNC and Hanoi Medical University has existed for twenty years, it became a personal journey for me about five years ago at the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control. I realized quickly that Dr. Vivian Go, Dr. Bill Miller, and the UNC Project Vietnam/Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases team weren’t just coming here to ‘do research’. They were coming here to stand beside us.

“I feel deeply indebted to them. After my first 30-hour flight to UNC, feeling the heavy exhaustion and jet lag, I thought of my friends who have made this journey to Vietnam so many times. I often think of Dr. Judith Ladinsky, a legendary friend of Vietnam who made over 120 trips to help develop our medical science and public health. I see that same selfless spirit in Vivian and Bill. Despite those grueling flights, they always step off the plane smiling and ready to go straight to work. Vivan and Bill share a rare passion; they never seem to rest.

“What I admire most is how they balance that passion with such discipline. To ensure the science stays rigorous, Vivian has built an incredible team – people who are remarkably resilient, responsible, and persistent. I’ve been so lucky to work with ‘heroes’ like them, and others like Kim Green (PATH), John Blandford (USCDC), Todd Pollack (Harvard), Maryam Salim (World Bank), and Olivier Cavey (Global Fund). These are people who didn’t stay in clean offices; they went into the dust, the pollution, and the harsh heat to find ways to help those who are most vulnerable. What makes us successful isn’t the paperwork or the grants like EBAI or SNaP; it’s that we can sit down as friends, disagree, brainstorm, and find a way to help a patient in a small province. There is a deep, quiet trust there. When I see that kind of dedication, I feel I owe it to them to do better.”

Huong (right) with leaders from the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases

2. What are the most important highlights from the collaboration?

“What I cherish most is seeing our work move beyond academic reports and into the lives of real people. In public health, the hardest thing isn’t starting a project; it’s making sure it stays alive after the researchers go home. Through our work with the SNaP model across dozens of clinics, we’ve learned the true secret to sustainability. It isn’t just following a manual; it’s about the readiness and the local buy-in from the staff. When we adapt the counseling to fit our own culture, clinics keep doing it, not because they have to, but because they see how much it helps their patients. Seeing this work take root at such a large scale has been incredible. It is no longer just a project; it is providing the evidence we need to shape national regulations. Knowing these models might one day become the standard of care for every province is the true highlight. It’s about creating something that lasts.”

3. What stands out from your visit to UNC-Chapel Hill?

“I’ve visited many U.S. universities, but Chapel Hill felt different from the start. I saw the sign for the #1 public school of public health, and by the end of my trip, I finally understood why they earned that rank. In many cities, everyone is in a hurry. But in Chapel Hill, there’s a special warmth – even strangers in the park stop to say hello. That friendliness stayed with me, but what moved me most was the day of my presentation. I was nervous standing before a room full of distinguished professors, especially with English not being my first language. But as I looked out, everyone was listening so intently.

“Back home in Vietnam, when the UNC team visits, it’s usually just a few of us welcoming them. But at UNC, this entire group of world-class scientists was there just to welcome our small delegation. They didn’t just listen to our challenges; they showed genuine respect for our work and even said they could learn from our experiences. That humility from a top-ranked university is what makes UNC great. It’s not just about their ranking; it’s their sincere desire to treat us as equal partners.”

4. What opportunities do you see for deepening the research and training partnership?

“At Hanoi Medical University, we are at a point where we can contribute so much more. After years of learning from UNC, we want to be a partner that truly helps shape the conversation. I see two clear paths ahead:

“First, research that drives national policy: Our work with the SNaP model across 42 clinics showed us how to bridge the gap between a research idea and a patient’s reality. But we shouldn’t stop there. My vision is to apply that same rigor to all 63 provinces. I want our partnership to be a reliable ‘scientific resource’ for the Ministry of Health – whether we are tackling infectious diseases or the rising challenges of cancer, diabetes, and mental health. Our goal is to provide the high-quality evidence our government needs to improve care nationwide.

“Second, building a permanent ‘home’ for these standards at HMU: I am inspired by partnerships like Duke-NUS in Singapore or UPenn-VinUni in Vietnam because they didn’t just bring a project to a country; they helped build an institution. To me, a ‘home’ means this partnership is no longer just a ‘guest’ visiting for a few years. I want the high standards we’ve built with UNC to become part of our official curriculum and our faculty’s daily work.

“My goal is to support a new generation of Vietnamese physician-scientists—students who combine UNC’s scientific rigor with the deep commitment to service that defines our local practice. I envision a true two-way exchange: your researchers come to see how we solve complex problems with limited resources, and our faculty learn from your expertise. We aren’t just doing research projects anymore; we are training the people who will lead our health system for the next thirty years.”

5. How do you balance an academic mission with national health priorities?

“In Vietnam, we don’t have the luxury of an ‘Ivory Tower.’ If our research isn’t helping to solve a national problem, we aren’t doing our job. We align our curriculum and our labs with what the Ministry of Health actually needs—whether that’s scaling PrEP or preparing for the challenges of an aging population. For me, the balance is simple: our academic mission is to provide the scientific foundation. We use our partnership with UNC to bring global rigor to our local context. This gives the government the high-quality evidence they need to make the best decisions for the whole country.”

6. How did you decide to dedicate your life to improving health and education in Vietnam? How did you come to focus on HIV?

“This brings back a very clear memory from over 30 years ago. I was a medical student at Bach Mai Hospital, looking through a small glass window at one of the first AIDS patients in Vietnam. He was so thin, so lonely, and so hopeless. Back then, HIV was a terrifying death sentence. The stigma was like a physical wall between that man and the rest of the world. Even as medical students, we were so scared that we instinctively stepped back from that window. But my teacher tapped on the glass and said: ‘Class, this is a human being.‘ That moment changed my life. I realized I couldn’t just be a doctor who looks at a virus; I had to be a doctor who sees the person behind it.

“The world has spent 40 years and billions of dollars, yet we still have no vaccine for HIV. Compare that to Covid, where we had one in just two years. Why? Because HIV is not just biological. It changes with every culture, every behavior, and every fear. What drives us today is that we don’t just sit and wait for a vaccine. We move constantly to find new ways to help. Every time a new model works in a remote village, it feels like we are bringing light to a dark place. I chose education because I want to pass on what I’ve learned since that window; that even the best science is just a start. The real work is making sure it actually changes a life.”

7. In terms of higher education, what are the biggest opportunities and challenges in Vietnam today, and where do you think international collaborations can add the most value?

“The biggest opportunity right now is a massive, 23-billion-dollar national program that was just approved this year to modernize our entire education system. It’s a huge moment for our students. They’re already digital natives; this finally gives them the chance to move past old textbooks and leapfrog straight into digital medicine and modern labs. The challenge, though, is staying ahead of the tools. In a world where AI moves so fast, we can’t just chase the latest gadget. We have to teach our students how to think and adapt, so they are the ones leading the technology, not just following it. That’s where the value of a partner like UNC really shows. It isn’t just about the funding; it’s about how we push each other. UNC brings those high scientific standards and asks the hard ‘why’ questions, while we show how to be resourceful in a tough, real-world environment. They bring the global theory, we bring the local ‘how-to,’ and we both get better because of it.

“To me, real innovation doesn’t happen in a boardroom. It happens at the bedside. It’s when a student takes a global concept like PrEP or the SNaP model and figures out how to make it work in a crowded rural clinic. That quiet act of turning an international standard into a local cure. That is the most impactful innovation we have.”

8. What is most enjoyable about your work?

“I’ve been lucky to see this work from a few different angles. In the clinic, it’s very personal: there is nothing like helping the patient right in front of you. It’s real and it’s immediate. In research, I love that moment when you find an answer that might help a lot of people at once. And in public health, it’s the scale: building a system that can manage a crisis like COVID or keep HIV under control for a whole community. But what matters most to me now is leading higher education. We have a well-known saying from President Ho Chi Minh: ‘For a ten-year benefit, plant trees; for a hundred-year benefit, cultivate people.’ That’s how I see my role today. I’m not just solving one problem anymore; I’m trying to help the people who will go out and do the clinical work, the research, and the public health. Seeing them grow is what has the most lasting impact.”

Dr. Huong received her MD from Hanoi Medical University, MPH from Université Libre de Bruxelles, and PhD in Public Health from the Hanoi School of Public Health. She played a pivotal role in Vietnam’s national HIV/AIDS response, rising to Director General of the Vietnam Administration of HIV/AIDS Control and working closely with partners including the U.S. CDC, the Global Fund, and WHO. In 2025, she was appointed Chairperson of the University Council and Secretary of the Party Committee (a position akin to Chancellor) at Hanoi Medical University, becoming the first woman to serve in this position.

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Intervention to Prevent HIV

Nilkanth (Neil) Calimlim-Khot

Neil’s work with Dr. Becky White, the director of UNC Infectious Diseases and HIV Services in the N.C. Department of Adult Corrections, focuses on a stark reality: people leaving prison face a dramatically higher risk of HIV. Evidence shows that a released individual is less likely to come back to prison if they can continue health care. Studies also show that community health workers, with lived experience of incarceration, can become trusted partners in health for individuals reentering their communities.  

Neil is working White’s team to introduce HIV prevention PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV) services for womenthrough trusted community health workers. Leveraging the N.C. FIT program, founded by Dr. Evan Ashkin with UNC’s Department of Family Medicine, Neil is helping to shape the infrastructure behind the study. He’s currently writing protocols, coordinating partners, and building a REDCap database that will capture data from questionnaires administered inside the prison.  

“The goal is to ultimately reduce HIV in released incarcerated individuals,” explains Neil. “This means initiating conversations about HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis early on and then creating a bridge with community clinics once they’re released so that they can start on PrEP medication to lessen their likelihood of contraction.”   

Neil says the work is about building trust while reducing the stigma that shadows incarcerated people, recognizing challenges with medication adherence and stigma. He says the study reinforces his own beliefs that effective care must consider the structural and social barriers that patients face, particularly those with fewer resources and support. A big part of the study’s vision, as Neil sees it, is to change the narrative. 

“In the end, we want to help these underrepresented populations have a chance to live healthy and hopeful lives.”  

Moments That Set His Path

As a college freshman at NC State, he experienced a cardiac arrest following complications from thyroid surgery that damaged his parathyroid glands. This event fundamentally changed how he thought about what he wanted to do with his life. Another personal experience, losing his friend to gun violence, showed Neil an area of public health that urgently needed attention: gun violence.  

“I didn’t want this loss to be the end of the story—I wanted to contribute to a solution to the problem of gun violence.”   

Neil partnered with Dr. Sanjay Batish, a family physician practicing in Leland, NC, who is an adjunct professor for the UNC medical school. Batish cares for patients living with the long‑term consequences of gunshot injuries—patients who have become quadriplegic, who have developed opioid dependence to manage chronic pain. For Neil, the work is both academic and deeply personal. He sees it as one piece of a larger, lifelong commitment. 

Systems Behind Gun Violence

Working with Dr. Batish, Neil has examined how firearm related harm is measured, documented, and addressed across public health and primary care systems. His work consistently shows how gaps in data limit prevention efforts. 

In Why We Still Can’t Measure the Impact of Gun Shows on Firearm Harm, Neil analyzed health, surveillance, and mortality datasets in North Carolina, showing how fragmented systems hinder evaluation of gun show–related harm. In another study, Firearm Related Injuries and Risk Proxies in Primary Care, he found firearm injuries—and related risk factors such as mental health conditions and violence exposure—are inconsistently documented, with clinicians often relying on indirect warning signs rather than firearmspecific screening. In a study that looked at geographic differences in firearm violence (Differences in Firearm Violence among Primary Care Populations across Rural, Suburban, and Urban Areas across the U.S.), Neil synthesized evidence that shows how firearm injury patterns vary by geography and age, with implications for tailored prevention and counseling strategies. He has also presented his work at national conferences including the Firearm and Harm Prevention Conference and North American Primary Care Research Group (NAPCRG) Conference.  

“My lifelong goal is to make a public health impact while making a clinical difference for individuals. I hope to continue to learn more about epidemiology and further my research on gun violence.”  

What ties all of Neil’s work together is compassion–an outlook that shapes everything.  

“My profession of choice is for impact,” he said, guiding work that prioritizes real outcomes, from patient care to research and data that improve safety and effectiveness.  

The post At the Center of Change: An MPH Student in Action appeared first on Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.

Guochun Jiang, PhD

A new study led by Guochun Jiang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the UNC School of Medicine, and researcher with the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases and UNC HIV Cure Center, has found that a drug named citarinostat is effective at disrupting latent HIV reservoirs. The findings, which were published in Science Advances, bring researchers one step closer to achieving eradication of the virus.

Read more from the UNC School of Medicine Newsroom.

The post UNC Researchers Demonstrate Drug’s Effectiveness in Drawing Out Dormant HIV from Immune Cells appeared first on Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases.