UCLA to Give AIDS Program Prominence

Eleven years after a UCLA researcher became the first person to identify the syndrome now known as AIDS, the university is establishing an institute aimed at increasing the public visibility of AIDS research and treatment at the school.

The UCLA AIDS Institute, which will coordinate the work of dozens of researchers university-wide, comes in part in response to some scientists’ concerns that AIDS efforts were poorly synchronized and that public support for research is dwindling.

“I’ll say very frankly, I think it’s late in coming,” said Irvin Chen, a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of the institute, to be announced officially today. “I think it should have been done years ago.”

AIDS research has a long history at UCLA. Dr. Michael Gottlieb discovered the syndrome there in 1981. The annual AIDS budget is $23 million, divided among 90 projects in the schools of Medicine, Public Health, Nursing, Dentistry and Social Welfare.

But some faculty members have long complained that AIDS efforts at UCLA were insufficiently coordinated, resulting in duplication and delays. Critics say administrators had failed to give AIDS the kind of focused attention researchers believe is appropriate.

“I think we’re trying to increase the visibility of the AIDS program here at UCLA,” said Dr. Ronald Mitsuyasu, an associate director of the institute and director of a new AIDS outpatient clinic. “I think we really haven’t had as much visibility as we need.”

The aim of the institute is to harmonize the many branches of AIDS work at UCLA--patient care, basic and clinical research and education and prevention. While it will not have its own building or any specific start-up grant, the institute has an office and a full-time administrator.

It will also include four so-called “core facilities” open to any UCLA researcher interested in doing AIDS-related work. The shared facilities--for example, a virology lab--have been funded by a federal grant received by the university last fall.

In December, UCLA opened its first dedicated AIDS clinic, an outpatient facility in the UCLA Medical Center now serving about 500 patients. Mitsuyasu, who runs the clinic, said it has brought together a wide range of specialties and will handle a growing number of patients.

The clinic will also help recruit patients for trials of experimental therapies.

The university has also offered several other services to the fledgling institute, including help from the development office at the School of Medicine in raising private research funds and, eventually, new faculty positions devoted to AIDS work.

One compelling argument for raising the public profile of AIDS research and treatment at UCLA, beyond the obvious need to control the epidemic, is to enable the university to raise more public and private money for AIDS research and care.

Noting that Congress intends this year for the first time to cut back the AIDS research budget proposed by the White House, Chen said, “I think the public perception of science is at about the lowest level I’ve ever seen it.”

“It’s unfortunate that it has to get to a point where (scientists) are no longer able to get grant funding . . . for people to start realizing we have to start doing a little better at communicating to the public,” said Chen.

The official opening of the institute is to take place this morning on the Westwood campus with a tour of the outpatient clinic and labs, a scientific symposium and a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Researchers will also announce two new experimental-drug trials--one of a vaccine to prevent the development of AIDS in people infected with the AIDS virus, and the other a drug to prevent transmission of the virus from pregnant women to their infants.