Rapporteurs have the important task of objectively recording the proceedings and presentations at HIVR4P 2024. Throughout the conference, an international team of rapporteurs will report on key conference highlights across all tracks and publish summaries on this page.
Basic science
Lead: Yonatan Ganor
Yonatan Ganor
INSERM, France
Yonatan Ganor obtained a PhD in neuroimmunology (2006, Weizman Institute, Israel) and then did postdoctoral training on mucosal HIV-1 (2006-2013, Cochin Institute, Paris). He pioneered the use of human male genital tissues and made significant contributions to the HIV-1 field, identifying immune cells mediating HIV-1 sexual transmission and proving that macrophages constitute genuine HIV-1 reservoirs. Further, he discovered unexpected anti-HIV-1 roles of the mucosal neuropeptides and is focusing now on neuroimmune interactions controlling viral infections. He was recruited by the French CNRS as a research associate in 2013 and promoted to Senior Research Director in 2022. He has been named as Laboratory Co-Director at the Cochin Institute from 2025.
Dieter Mielke
Dieter Mielke
Duke University, United States
Dieter Mielke is a senior research associate in the Department of Surgery at Duke University. His research focuses on the breadth of antibody responses that target virus-infected cells elicited by infection and vaccination and their potential role in preventative and therapy strategies. He completed his PhD at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, in 2017, where he used deep sequencing approaches to assess the role of early humoral responses in early HIV envelope evolution.
Paula Ellenberg
Paula Ellenberg
Burnet Institute, Australia
Paula Ellenberg is a mid-career molecular virologist at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, Australia. With 12 years of postdoctoral experience, she specializes in understanding how retroviruses interact with the cells they infect. Her contributions include uncovering genetic signatures associated with maraviroc resistance and testing new drug candidates against HIV reverse transcriptase. Currently, she is investigating innovative HIV prevention products for women that target bacterial vaginosis, a condition associated with increased vulnerability to HIV.
Yanina Ghiglione
Yanina Ghiglione
University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Yanina Ghiglione is a biologist with a PhD from the University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is an associated researcher at the Argentine National Research Council and works at the Institute of Biomedical Research on Retroviruses and AIDS in Buenos Aires. Her primary research focuses on studying the viral reservoirs and HIV persistence and the relationship with phenotypic and activation immune markers.
Vaccines and bNAbs
Lead: Vincent Muturi-Kioi
Vincent Muturi-Kioi
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Kenya
Vincent Muturi-Kioi is the HIV Vaccines Product Development Team Lead at IAVI. In this role, he leads a team to advance the most promising immunogens against HIV from discovery to experimental medicine trials with the goal of developing a vaccine regimen that is safe and efficacious. Previously, he served as a senior medical director within the Clinical Development team at IAVI. He was responsible for the design of clinical development plans, clinical trial protocols and safety monitoring plans for clinical trials evaluating biomedical prevention interventions against HIV and other diseases of public health importance.
Akemi V Matsuno Sanchez
Akemi V Matsuno Sanchez
Centro de Investigaciones Tecnológicas Biomédicas y Medioambientales (CITBM), Peru
Akemi V Matsuno Sanchez is a research physician working at the PERU Clinical Trials Unit, under Jorge Sánchez’s mentorship. She participated in several AIDS Clinical Trials Group trials, HIV Vaccine Trial Networks studies, HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) studies and COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network trials. Recently, she was the Investigator of Record at the CITBM for the HPTN083 study and the PALISADE study, both using CAB LA for HIV prevention. Her current scientific interests lean towards understanding the social determinants of health that shape existing inequities through medical anthropology and implementation science.
Michelle Muthui
Michelle Muthui
KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya
Michelle Muthui is an early-career postdoctoral research fellow in the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme. Michelle’s research background is in molecular biology and immunology, and her work entails understanding host-pathogen interactions and disease pathogenesis to develop health interventions for infectious diseases. Currently, she works on research projects aimed at characterizing the antibody repertoire of African populations in order to guide the design of regionally effective vaccines. Her work also involves investigating novel strategies to develop HIV vaccines and evaluating candidate HIV vaccines.
Ranajoy Mullick
Ranajoy Mullick
International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), India
Ranajoy Mullick is currently working as a senior scientist at the Antibody Translational Research Program in partnership between the THSTI, India, and IAVI. He has extensive experience in the field of viral biology and vaccine science. He obtained his PhD from the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata, India, and did his postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago, Illinois, USA, and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. His research interest has been focused on functional characterization of the currently circulating HIV-1 in terms of its response towards best-in-class bNAbs.
PrEP and ARV-based prevention
Lead: Davina Canagasabey
Davina Canagasabey
PATH, United States
Davina Canagasabey is a global health practitioner with more than 15 years of experience providing technical and management support to HIV programming across 18 countries in Africa and Asia. She currently serves as Senior Technical Advisor for HIV with PATH’s Primary Health Care Program, supporting PATH’s integrating HIV programming in the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Kenya, Myanmar and Vietnam. She also supports technical thought leadership across PATH's HIV portfolio, with a focus on advancing sustainable, choice-driven HIV prevention, differentiated HIV service delivery, and integrated person-centred HIV care as a bridge to 2030 universal health coverage goals.
Erin Cooney
Erin Cooney
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States
Erin Cooney is faculty in the Center for Public Health and Human Rights and an assistant scientist in the Social and Behavioral Interventions Program, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a social and behavioural scientist who uses epidemiologic and qualitative methods to optimize HIV prevention and treatment among trans communities. She is a co-investigator on ENCORE, a nationwide cohort of trans women in the United States. In this role, she leads analyses focused on equitable PrEP uptake, PrEP preferences and longitudinal patterns of PrEP use and trans women and transfeminine people.
Julian Vega
Julian Vega
The Fernández Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Julian Vega is an MD and researcher, who graduated from medical school in 2021 and started his infectious diseases residency that same year in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Julian is passionate about a variety of topics, with a focus on HIV. In the past few years, he has worked on multiple subjects, including HIV prevention, perinatal transmission, opportunistic infections and mpox. He has presented abstracts at several conferences.
Phionah Kibalama Ssemambo
Phionah Kibalama Ssemambo
Makerere University Johns Hopkins University (MU-JHU) Research Collaboration, Kampala, Uganda
Phionah Kibalama Ssemambo is a public health specialist and clinical researcher with an interest in maternal and child health. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from Makerere University Kampala and a Master’s of Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Phionah has gained over 15 years’ experience in HIV clinical research in the MU-JHU Research Collaboration as medical officer, study coordinator and investigator. She has also worked on clinical trials at the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) supported by the National Institutes of Health. She has worked on advancing the field of HIV prevention, initially through prevention of vertical transmission and currently through research on HIV prevention modalities among adolescents and women to promote sexual and reproductive health. Phionah is the 2023/2024 DAIDS HIV Prevention Trials Network International Scholar working on a study to evaluate correlates of long-acting reversible contraceptive use among young women in southern Africa.
Applied and implementation science
Lead: Katrina Ortblad
Katrina Ortblad
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, United States
Katrina Ortblad is an implementation scientist and Assistant Professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, United States. Her research seeks to improve equity in health access with differentiated models of HIV service delivery. Her research projects, all in Kenya, include a cluster-randomized controlled trial (cRCT) testing different pharmacy-based HIV pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP and PEP) delivery models, a pilot study testing an online PrEP and PEP delivery model, and a cRCT testing a model of peer PrEP referral with HIV self-testing. To conduct her research, she uses diverse methods across the fields of epidemiology, economics, public policy, psychology and implementation science.
Emmanuel Sendaula
Emmanuel Sendaula
Reach Out Mbuya Community Health Initiative, Uganda
Emmanuel Sendaula is a clinical epidemiologist and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) specialist with over a decade of hands-on experience in HIV programming, as well as expertise in broader public health roles. His expertise lies in the design, implementation and evaluation of public health interventions aimed at improving health outcomes, particularly in HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment. With a strong foundation in epidemiology, Emmanuel has led various initiatives that have significantly contributed to the response to HIV and AIDS in Uganda. His work involves rigorous data analysis, the development of M&E systems, and the application of evidence-based practices to enhance programme effectiveness.
Gastón Devisich
Gastón Devisich
Fundación Huésped, Argentina
Gastón Devisich has lived with HIV for 12 years and is the Community Engagement Representative in the Implementation Science Division of the Research Department at Fundación Huésped. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Buenos Aires and is one of the two representatives for Latin America and the Caribbean in the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board. He is currently a fellow of the Advocacy-for-Cure Academy of the International AIDS Society and AVAC, implementing a project to launch an HIV cure consortium in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Kevin K’Orimba
Kevin K’Orimba
LVCT Health, Kenya
Kevin K’Orimba is an avid researcher with a background in medical and public health. He is currently serving as the CATALYST Kenya PI with LVCT Health. Kevin has led and contributed to key studies on biomedical HIV prevention technologies, malaria prevention, treatment and epidemiology, and COVID-19 management. Additionally, he has engaged in cascading and packaging evidence for advocacy and programmatic output supporting key policies and delivery of health interventions. His interests lie in developing and utilizing evidence to inform health interventions and deliver impact.
Other prevention modalities and cross-cutting issues
Lead: Carolina Coutinho
Carolina Coutinho
Evandro Chagas National Institute of Infectious Diseases-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil
Carolina Coutinho is a researcher at Fiocruz, Brazil. She is a biologist with a Master’s and PhD in public health epidemiology. Her research primarily explores the epidemiology of infectious diseases, including HIV and STIs, and their intersection with substance use, particularly among key populations.
Natasha Ludwig-Barron
Natasha Ludwig-Barron
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), United States
Natasha Ludwig-Barron is a Chicana/Mexican-American epidemiologist and UCSF postdoctoral fellow with more than 10 years of public health research and practice experience. Early childhood exposure to substance use in Latino communities informs her research questions. After earning an MPH at Emory University, Natasha completed a Hispanic-Serving Health Professions Schools Fellowship, conducting HIV and substance use research along the California-Mexico border, and later served as an epidemiologist with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. She completed her PhD in epidemiology at the University of Washington, supported by an NIH Diversity Supplement. As a postdoctoral fellow, Natasha is working along the Texas-Mexico border, conducting two pilot studies that aim to: geospatially characterize sub-groups of Latino people who inject drugs using an HIV risk environment framework; and highlight ethical considerations when incorporating biometric enrolment technology into research studies of people who inject drugs and HIV.
Pablo Radusky
Pablo Radusky
Fundación Huésped, Argentina
Pablo D Radusky holds a PhD in psychology from the University of Buenos Aires, with a dissertation on HIV-related stigma and its socio-emotional impact. Since 2016, he has been a social researcher in the Research Department, Fundación Huésped. His current topics of research are stigma and discrimination (related to gender identity, sexual orientation and HIV) and mental health, and their relation with sexual health and HIV outcomes in trans people and gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. His research ranges from prevention (for example, PrEP implementation) to treatment (for example, adherence and retention). In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires.
Syed Raza Haider Tirmizi
Syed Raza Haider Tirmizi
Naz Pakistan, Pakistan
Syed Raza Haider Tirmizi has worked for sexual and gender minorities in social development sectors since 2010 and has been working with the Naz Pakistan team. Syed worked as a monitoring and evaluation manager, implementing community-based interventions in Punjab and Sindh with various organizations. Syed worked in Karachi with Humraz Pakistan and the Sub Rang Society, offering technical support and implementing a project on organizational development. Syed also worked with the Dareecha Male Health Society, a community-based organization in Rawalpindi, and is currently working as Project Director of the Dostana Society in Lahore.
