Connecting biology & behaviour: Meharry's Dr. James Hildreth aims to use new research center to find effective strategies for reaching out to African-American at risk for HIV/AIDS

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Dec 1, 2005

NASHVILLE, TENN.

Bright morning sun floods through the wall of windows in Dr. James E.K. Hildreth's new fourth-floor office at Meharry Medical College. Light bathes his corner sitting area, washes over the framed photographs of family on his desk and spotlights the half-unpacked boxes scattered along one wall, hinting at his cherished collection of African art and books.

Hildreth, a prominent HIV/AIDS researcher, and director of Meharry's new Comprehensive Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV, has just been on the job since July, and he is already feeling a sense of accomplishment. He's getting windows in his laboratory and the painted "accent walls" that he went to battle for. For Hildreth, it's not just about aesthetics. It's about productivity and function.

When you are on the brink of a breakthrough, poised to usher in the fruits of years of biomedical research that could stop the spread of the deadly virus that causes AIDS, lights, windows and a bit of color aren't a lot to ask for.

"Clearly, infrastructure at Meharry isn't what it is at Hopkins," admits Hildreth. When he carne to the college, he found "walls painted battleship gray, and every other light bulb missing." Changing that atmosphere was near the top of Hildreth's list.

Meharry did, however, have the most important tool it needed: the BioSafety Level 3 lab and air filtration system necessary for handling live HIV. And Hildreth, a professor of intemal medicine at the college, is already making plans for an 18,000-square-foot lab accommodating eight to 10 HIV/AIDS investigators at Meharry's old hospital.

"Our presence will enhance an existing and stellar research infrastructure," he says.

Hildreth, 48, may be the man that everyone has their eye on, but he is quick to point out that he's not a one-man band. Says Hildreth, "It's amazing what you can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit."

He points to the role of investigators like Dr. Bindong Liu of China, Dr. Waldemar Popik of Poland and Dr. Donald Alcendor, all colleagues at Johns Hopkins who share his passion for finding a cure for AIDS. All three have since joined him at Meharry, a fact that amazes Hildreth.

"My work and my time at Hopkins were well respected even more so than I thought," Hildreth says. "When other researchers heard that I was coming here, they wanted to follow me."

One of those who followed was Popik.

"He was my competitor," says Popik of Hildreth. Both scientists were investigating lipid transfer and HIV infection while at Hopkins.

"I had done all that I could do at Hopkins. And when I found out that James was establishing a lab in Nashville, I asked if I could join him. He said yes, and I accepted immediately," adds Popik, who relocated to Tennessee with his wife. "I decided to come because of [Hildreth's] great science and his personality; a combination that you'd like your boss to be. There are others here who came from Hopkins and we feel like a family, not competitors. Now we can join our forces and really do something good."

INSIDE A SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH

In 1987, HIV/AIDS was mysterious and and frightening to doctors and researchers who peered through their microscopes at the virus or into the faces of the dying. At the time, Hildreth, a newly hired pharmacologist at Hopkins, "was told to work on AIDS." Hildreth had little interest in the disease, but he did want to know "how is the HIV virus able to steal cells?" He eventually found his research niche, but the answer to his question would not come for 13 years.

"I decided to work on AIDS on my own terms using adhesion molecules and retroviruses," says Hildreth, a Rhodes Scholar.

Hildreth s research is based on the discovery that "cholesterol is active in HIV's ability to penetrate cells and that removing fatty materials from a cell's membrane can block infection," he says. In 2000, Hildreth and his team discovered that without the fatty materials, or lipids, the virus that causes AIDS could not enter cells, and ultimately could not infect and spread throughout the human body.

The next year, Hildreth and his team began exploring cyclodextrin, a natural compound that binds to cholesterol and is often used commercially to flavor beverages and make medicines soluble. By using the compound to drain cholesterol from HIV, the team managed to develop a cyclodextrin-based gel capable of disabling HIV and blocking its transmission through sex. That year, Hildreth and his investigators did just that. Their work was published in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses in 2003.

According to Hildreth, his discovery differs from other significant HIV findings because it focuses on a component of the virus that is actually made by cells, rather than proteins encoded within the virus. Hildreth's breakthrough research resulted in the development of a minimally toxic vaginal

Dr. James E.K. Hildreth

Title: Director, Comprehensive Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV, Meharry Medical College

Education: Bachelor's, Harvard University; Ph.D., University of Oxford, Oxford, England, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine