Letter from Dr. Mark H. Kaplan
- Dear Members of the CPFA Board,
I am so pleased to announce that the four years of funding provided by CPFA for my project “A Search for the Viral Cause of AIDS Lymphoma” enabled our research team at the University of Michigan to “just” be awarded an NIH transformative grant. This 5 year multimillion dollar grant will enable us to greatly expand on “our” novel observation showing that the Human Endogenous Retroviruses, specifically HERV2K, may be involved in the cause of HIV and non-HIV lymphomas. I am proud that your contributions to this project have brought in such new major funding.
Seed money is so critical to discovery and it allows scientists to take chances on ideas that may be “risky”. Your faith in me to proceed with this original “risky” project has opened up a new and exciting area of discovery that we feel can change our whole approach to the understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of human lymphoma. It is gratifying to know that the National Institutes of Health recognizes the validity of our ideas which have now also been accepted for publication in quality scientific journals.
CPFA should be proud of its help in both our research and in research it has supported in HIV vaccine and immunological studies. There is still so much work to be done in the field of HIV research to help conquer this terrible disease. The doors opened by HIV research are opening up newer doors to help improve the condition of humankind. I am so thrilled to have been a contributor to your vision and effort.
Mark H. Kaplan, MD, FACP
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Disease
University of Michigan Medical School
Ann Arbor Michigan