PROMPT Bioethics Study Team, Ann Dennis, MD, MS, Suzanne Day, PhD, MA; Stuart Rennie, PhD; and Kristen Sullivan, PhD. The Dennis Research Group in the School of Medicine has released a new white paper titled, “Revitalizing Community Engagement in the Public Health Use of Molecular HIV Epidemiology.”

Members of the PRomoting Equity for Pregnant Adolescents in Research (PREPARE) team recently returned from a trip to Botswana and Malawi. This study is led by Principal Investigators (PI) Anne Lyerly, MD, MA, and Kristen Sullivan, PhD, MSW, MBA, of the UNC Center for Bioethics, and includes several UNC Bioethics faculty. While overseas, the PREPARE … Read more

Abstract Objective: Fetal tissue research has driven significant medical advances but remains publicly contentious in the United States. The views of pregnant individuals in the United States regarding the donation of fetal tissue offer an important and previously unexplored perspective on this issue. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of data from two separate, broader … Read more

Annie Lyerly and Kristen Sullivan have been awarded an R01 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) to develop empirically informed guidance for conducting ethically responsible HIV/co-infections research with pregnant adolescents.  Pregnant adolescents face synergistic challenges in the context of HIV – heightened risk of maternal infection, vertical transmission, and maternal and … Read more

Pregnant individuals are often excluded from research without clear justification, even when the research poses minimal risk of harm to the fetus. Little is known about institutional review board (IRB) decision-making practices when reviewing such research. We conducted a survey of current and former IRB personnel in the United States to elicit their interpretations of … Read more

Although 85% of HIV-positive adolescents reside in sub-Saharan Africa, little is known about the psychosocial and mental health factors affecting their daily well-being. Identifying these contextual variables is key to development of culturally appropriate and effective interventions for this understudied and high-risk population. The purpose of this study was to identify salient psychosocial and mental … Read more