Thursday, November 1, 2012

Meet Clare, A Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate

Check out this interesting mini-bio of  Clare Collins, the latest in IRMA's "Meet a Friendly Rectal Microbicide Advocate" series on the IRMA website here.  Clare  is one of five new bios posted October 30, 2012.



Clare Collins
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA


"I think rectal microbicides just make sense. The idea of a product that people might actually WANT to use to protect themselves against HIV is a no-brainer."

Clare is an Associate Director of Communications and External Relations at the Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), where she works to promote MTN's rectal microbicide agenda. She also works to strategize the best ways to communicate with others concerning complex health information around biomedical HIV prevention. After starting at the MTN in 2010, she got involved with IRMA through reaching out to IRMA chair Jim Pickett and believes rectal microbicides are a very important part of the HIV prevention research agenda.

Currently Clare is busy planning for the launch of the first-ever rectal microbicide Phase II trial (MTN 017), testing a reduced-glycerin version of tenofovir gel for safety and acceptability among gay men, other men who have sex with men, and transgender women at domestic and international sites. The first site is expected to open enrollment sometime in December 2012. Clare is also part of a team (including IRMA and Population Council) that developed a new educational video, "The Rectal Revolution is Here: An Introduction to Rectal Microbicide Clinical Trials," which will be launched at the same time MTN 017 starts. The video is 13 minutes long and will be available on YouTube. It features animation and live action, and has English, Spanish, and Thai versions.

Clare has been greatly influenced by her mother, who taught her valuable lessons about compassion and concern for others through her battle with cancer, including the necessity of universal access to health care. She is very excited about the future and looks forward to seeing the evolving research in this area.

Thank you, Clare, for all that you do!

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*Join IRMA's robust, highly-active. moderated, global listserv addressing rectal microbicide research and advocacy as well as other interesting new HIV prevention technologies by contacting us at rectalmicro@gmail.com. Joining our listserv automatically makes you a member of IRMA - a network of more than 1,100 advocates, scientists, policy makers and funders from all over the world.

*Please look for us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/InternationalRectalMicrobicideAdvocates, and you can follow us on Twitter: @rectalmicro.

  *Also, please note that shared news items from other sources posted on this blog do not necessarily mean IRMA has taken any position on the article's content.

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