PIRC

The UC San Diego Primary Infection Resource Consortium (PIRC) is the largest, most intensively studied and well-characterized longitudinal cohort of acute and early HIV infected (AEH) individuals in the United States. With its unique repository of clinical specimens and behavioral data, PIRC is dedicated to helping qualified laboratories and clinicians all over the world expand the scope of life-changing, critical HIV research.

The UC San Diego Primary Infection Resource Consortium (PIRC) is the largest, most intensively studied and well-characterized longitudinal cohort of acute and early HIV infected (AEH) individuals in the United States. The program is primarily supported by the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)/National Institutes of Health (NIH). We collect critically important clinical and biological samples, which are then archived for use by national and international investigators studying a range of high-priority research questions relevant to the earliest stages of HIV infection (i.e., cure, prevention, aging, viral evolution, immune dysfunction, vaccines, transmission, etc.)

The PIRC supports the infrastructure resources necessary to collect detailed clinical, behavioral and biological data associated with these samples. The data generated under the PIRC are available to qualified researchers, following review and approval of a peer-reviewed concept proposal. PIRC investigations have positively impacted research direction and policy in many areas including: informing consensus guidelines for HIV treatment, establishing best practices for the management of persons with acute and early HIV infection, and developing and evaluating HIV infection control strategies. PIRC research has also contributed to our understanding of early neutralizing antibody responses, viral decay kinetics, viral compartmentalization, predictors of sexual transmission, and the importance of early treatment to immunologic recovery.

For more information about the PIRC, please visit the PIRC website.