Robert C. Bollinger

Robert C. Bollinger, MD, MPH, is a Professor of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine with a joint appointment in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has more than 30 years of experience in international public health, clinical research and education in a broad range of global health priorities including HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy and emerging infections. His initial experience in public health in India was in 1979 and included field work with a leprosy control project in rural Bihar. Over the past 15 years, he has initiated and conducted a large collaborative Indo-US HIV research program in Pune, India, with the National AIDS Research Institute/Indian Council for Medical Research and the BJ Medical College/Sassoon General Hospital. He also conducts collaborative projects in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is the Principal Investigator for an NIH-sponsored HIV/AIDS Network Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) with its Clinical Research Site (CRS) located at the BJ Medical College (BJMC) in Pune, India. Current clinical studies there include a Phase II randomized, mother-and-child comparison trial to evaluate three antiretroviral strategies to reduce nevirapaine resistance in HIV-1 (ACTG 5207); and a Phase II parallel, randomized clinical trial comparing responses to initiation of NNRTI-based versus PI-based antiretroviral therapy in HIV-infected infants who have and have not previously received single dose nevirapine (IMPAACT trial P1060).

Dr. Bollinger is also the Country Director for the Hopkins Fogarty AIDS International Training and Research Programs in India and the DRC, which has provided short-term and degree public health training to more than 100 visiting scientists at Hopkins, as well as in-country training for more than 2000 scientists since 1992. Dr. Bollinger is Director of the Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE) (www.ccghe.jhmi.edu) which develops and provides clinical education to health care providers in resource-limited settings around the world. Under Dr. Bollinger's leadership, the CCGHE is currently undertaking and establishing public health and clinical educational programs for physicians and nurses in India, Ethiopia, Zambia, Uganda and Panama. Dr. Bollinger is also Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health, which coordinates all international health education and research at Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Bollinger's research interests include characterization of the cellular immune response to recent HIV infection, identification of the biological and behavioral risk factors for HIV transmission, as well as the characterization of the clinical progression and treatment of HIV infection and related infections in resource-limited settings. He has been Principal Investigator for many collaborative NIH-sponsored research studies and clinical trials in Pune, India, including a Phase III randomized clinical trial to determine if anti-retroviral therapy can prevent HIV transmission among HIV-discordant sexual partners (HPTN 052 Trial), a Phase III randomized clinical trial comparing two different HAART regimens for treatment of HIV patients with low CD4 counts (ACTG 5175 Trial), a Phase III randomized clinical trial to compare two different regimens of infant nevirapine for prevention of breast-milk transmission of HIV (1R01-AI45462), and a Phase II clinical trial investigating the safety and acceptability vaginal microbicide 1% Tenofovir Gel (HPTN 059 Trial). He has published more than 100 research publications and 14 book chapters, including the first and largest studies of the risk factors for HIV transmission in India, the cloning and sequencing of the first HIV viruses from India, the only studies characterizing the primary immune response to HIV in India, and the demonstration of the increased risk of HIV acquisition associated with recent HSV infection and lack of circumcision.

Dr. Bollinger is also an active clinician/educator who provides and supervises HIV and infectious diseases clinical care in the outpatient and in-patient settings at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In addition to his teaching, research and clinical responsibilities, Dr. Bollinger has contributed to many public health training programs, expert committees and consultations in the US, Botswana, Brazil, Chile, India, Japan, Pakistan, Panama, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand and Uganda. For the past 4 years, he has been a member of the US Presidential Advisory Council for HIV/AIDS (PACHA), where he also serves as a member of the PACHA International Sub-committee. Dr. Bollinger received his undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Chemistry from Haverford College, his Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and his Masters in Public Health from the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases from the American Board of Internal Medicine, having received internal medicine training at the University of Maryland Medical Systems and a Post-doctoral Fellowship in Infectious Diseases from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Bollinger has been on the faculty at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Public Health since 1992.