The tools exist. The challenge is getting them to the people who need them.
In a city where nearly 128,000 people live with HIV and thousands remain unreached by the treatments that could protect them, the federal government has renewed its commitment to a rare collaborative effort. The National Institutes of Health has awarded $11.3 million over five years to the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research — a 50 percent funding increase that reflects both the center's scientific momentum and the unfinished moral work of an epidemic that continues to fall hardest on Black and Hispanic communities. The tools to end HIV transmission largely exist; what remains is the harder task of ensuring they reach everyone who needs them.
- Despite decades of medical progress, one in four HIV-positive New Yorkers is not receiving antiretroviral therapy — and one in four high-risk residents has no access to PrEP, the drug that can prevent infection entirely.
- The $11.3 million grant — a 50% increase over the center's original funding — signals federal urgency behind the goal of cutting new HIV infections by 90% before 2030.
- More than 150 researchers across three institutions are now mobilizing around four missions: prevention, next-generation therapies, a cure, and managing the compounding health crises that accompany HIV.
- A newly formed mental health working group confronts a hidden crisis — nearly half of NYC's HIV-positive population lives with depression or psychiatric illness, quietly eroding their ability to stay on treatment.
- The center's expanded behavioral science core is targeting the structural and social barriers that keep Black and Hispanic communities from accessing medications that are, in principle, already available to them.
Three New York institutions have received a substantial federal endorsement in the ongoing fight against HIV. The National Institutes of Health awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine an $11.3 million, five-year grant to renew and expand the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research — the only center of its kind in New York and one of 19 in a national network. The funding represents a 50 percent increase from the center's original grant, made possible because its researchers have collectively attracted more than $40 million in additional annual NIH support beyond the center's own budget.
Founded in 2017, the center coordinates more than 150 independent investigators across Einstein, The Rockefeller University, and CUNY's Graduate School of Public Health. Its work is organized around four core missions: reducing new infections, developing next-generation therapies, pursuing a cure, and managing the complications that accompany HIV disease. The new funding aligns with the federal initiative to cut new HIV infections by 90 percent by 2030.
The center's director, Harris Goldstein, frames the central challenge plainly: the science has largely arrived. Antiretroviral drugs can suppress HIV to undetectable levels and prevent new infections in those at risk. The problem is reach. In New York City, nearly 128,000 people live with HIV — yet as of 2019, a quarter were not on antiretroviral therapy, and a quarter of those at high risk were not taking PrEP. Black and Hispanic communities bear the heaviest burden of these gaps.
The expanded grant will strengthen four scientific cores spanning biomarker research, behavioral science, clinical translation, and researcher training. A newly launched mental health working group addresses a parallel crisis: depression and psychiatric disorders affect nearly half of the city's HIV-positive population, quietly undermining medication adherence and quality of life. The center's collaborative structure — uniting a medical school, a research university, and a public health institution — is itself part of the strategy, designed to move discoveries from the laboratory into the communities that need them most.
Three institutions in New York have just received a substantial vote of confidence from the federal government. The National Institutes of Health awarded Albert Einstein College of Medicine an $11.3 million grant over five years to renew and expand the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research, a collaborative effort that brings together researchers from Einstein, The Rockefeller University, and CUNY's Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. The funding represents a 50 percent increase from the center's initial five-year grant, a jump made possible because the three institutions' researchers have collectively secured more than $40 million in additional annual NIH HIV and AIDS research support beyond this center's own budget.
The center itself is relatively young—established in 2017—but it operates within a national network of 19 similar federally funded research centers, and it is the only one of its kind in New York. More than 150 independent investigators work under its umbrella, organized around four core missions: reducing new HIV infections, developing next-generation therapies, pursuing a cure, and managing the complications and coinfections that accompany HIV disease. The new grant will allow the center to expand its infrastructure and add new projects aligned with the federal "Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S." initiative, launched in 2019 with the goal of cutting new infections by 90 percent by 2030.
The challenge, as Harris Goldstein, the center's director and a pediatrics professor at Einstein, frames it, is not primarily about the science anymore. The tools exist. Antiretroviral drugs can suppress HIV to undetectable levels in infected individuals and prevent new infections in those at risk. The real problem is getting those medications to the people who need them—particularly Black and Hispanic Americans, who bear a disproportionate burden of the epidemic. In New York City alone, nearly 128,000 people are living with HIV. As of 2019, one quarter of them were not receiving antiretroviral therapy, while one quarter of those at high risk for infection were not taking pre-exposure prophylaxis, the preventive medication that stops the virus before it takes hold.
The expanded funding will strengthen four scientific cores that support researchers across the three institutions. One focuses on biomarkers and advanced technology; another on behavioral science and implementation strategies—the practical work of getting people into treatment and keeping them there. A third manages clinical and translational research, moving discoveries from the lab toward real-world application. The fourth, the developmental core, exists to train the next generation of HIV researchers and to bring established scientists from other fields into HIV work. The center has also launched a new working group focused on mental health, recognizing that depression and other psychiatric disorders affect nearly half of New York City's HIV-positive population, undermining both quality of life and medication adherence.
The grant comes at a moment when the science of HIV prevention and treatment has matured considerably, yet access remains uneven and shaped by the same historical inequities that have always marked American medicine. The new funding will support research aimed at closing those gaps—identifying better ways to expand the use of preventive medications in vulnerable populations, improving adherence to treatment in communities that have historically struggled to maintain viral suppression, and translating laboratory discoveries into clinical strategies that actually reach the people they are meant to help. The work is collaborative by design, drawing on the strengths of a medical school, a research university, and a public health institution, all working toward the same end.
Citações Notáveis
We have the tools to control this epidemic, including drugs that suppress HIV to undetectable levels. A key challenge is getting these medications to the people who need them, particularly Black and Hispanic Americans who are disproportionately affected.— Harris Goldstein, director of the Einstein-Rockefeller-CUNY Center for AIDS Research
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does a center in New York need $11.3 million to work on HIV when we already have drugs that work?
Because having a drug and getting it to the right person at the right time are two entirely different problems. In New York City alone, about 32,000 people with HIV aren't on treatment. That's not a science problem—it's a delivery problem.
So what does the money actually buy?
Infrastructure, mostly. Lab space, equipment, staff to run clinical trials, people to work with communities on why someone might not take their medication even if it's available. And it buys time for researchers to think about the harder questions—like why Black and Hispanic New Yorkers are hit so much harder by this epidemic.
Is that a research question or a social question?
Both. You can't separate them. The science has to account for the reality that some people face more barriers than others. That's what the new mental health working group is about—depression affects half the HIV-positive people in the city, and depression makes it harder to stick with treatment.
So the money isn't really about finding a cure?
It's about all of it at once. Yes, some researchers are working on eradication. But the center is also funding work on why someone in a marginalized community might not get their preventive medication, or why they might stop taking their treatment. Both matter equally.
What changes in the next five years because of this grant?
Hopefully, fewer people fall through the cracks. More people on treatment. Better mental health support. And researchers from other fields—not just HIV specialists—bringing fresh thinking to the problem.