Dr. Susan Little, MD, conducts translational research and clinical trials to increase our understanding of the pathogenesis of acute or primary HIV infection and HIV transmission, and works with a large international collaborative team to improve our understanding of the biology and epidemiology of HIV transmission.
Dr. Little's research focuses on the identification and systematic evaluation of individuals who have been recently infected with HIV and the sexual partners who transmitted HIV to them (Transmission Pairs) to elucidate and quantify epidemiologic, behavioral, biologic, virologic, and host factors that contribute to transmission. She has been heavily involved in the design of novel approaches to screen and identify acutely infected individuals, as well as the evaluation of important pathogenesis questions related to development of drug resistant variants in genital secretions and transmission of drug-resistant HIV-1. These studies also evaluate therapeutic intervention strategies, including antiretroviral therapy and vaccines to preserve immune function in recently infected subjects.
