Contact:
Will SansomPhone: (210) 567-2579
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sansom@uthscsa.edu Sunil K. Ahuja, M.D., who in the short span of nine years has brought more than $18 million in research funding to the Health Science Center for the study of HIV-1 genetics, has been recognized with a rare and prestigious MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health.
Fewer than 5 percent of NIH-funded investigators are selected to receive this honor. The Method to Extend Research In Time (MERIT) Award guarantees accomplished researchers 10 years of uninterrupted NIH funding without competitive grant renewal. The MERIT Award recognizes academic excellence, originality and research productivity.
Dr. Ahuja is professor of medicine (infectious diseases), and microbiology and immunology at the Health Science Center and director of the Veterans Administration Center for HIV/AIDS Research within the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Audie Murphy Division.
“Dr. Ahuja is undertaking the Herculean task of dissecting the host genetic determinants that influence HIV-1 susceptibility, and he is widely regarded as the top expert in this field,” said Robert A. Clark, M.D., professor and chairman of medicine and the Dan F. Parman Distinguished Chair at the Health Science Center. “He has created a veritable scientific enterprise of creative and innovative HIV research in San Antonio, and has recruited highly talented Ph.D.-trained scientists and physician-scientists to his group over the years, including Drs. Srinivas Mummidi, Enrique Gonzalez, Gabriel Catano, Marlon Quinones, Yogeshwar Kalkonde, Hemant Kulkarni, Shivani Maffi, Jose Camargo, Manju Mamtani, Carlos Estrada-Velez, Hernan Martinez, and Weijing He.”
Dr. Ahuja joined the Health Science Center from the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), where he completed training in infectious diseases under the mentorship of Anthony Fauci, M.D., director of the NIAID. “I have watched more than 100 NIAID fellows develop their careers after leaving here and would place Dr. Ahuja in the top half-dozen in terms of scientific stature,” Dr. Fauci said. “He is clearly among the brightest, most dynamic and most impressive young physician-scientists I have encountered over the last 15 years.”
The world took special notice of Dr. Ahuja’s contributions in January 2005 when he published, with Dr. Matthew Dolan from Wilford Hall Medical Center, San Antonio, and other colleagues, a seminal full article in the journal Science demonstrating that individuals with more copies of a particular HIV-suppressing immune gene than others in their own ethnic groups have more resistance to initial HIV infection and slower progression of disease to the development of AIDS. “It was a magnum opus that provides new and highly relevant insights into the genetic factors that influence HIV susceptibility,” Dr. Clark said.
Dr. Ahuja has consistently published articles in prestigious peer-reviewed journals, including
Science, Nature Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received prestigious awards such as the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award and the Burroughs Wellcome Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research. Dr. Ahuja has served on numerous NIH study sections and is very active in training the next generation of young scientists. The NIH recognized this commitment with a special minority supplement grant that permits research training of such individuals, including many from South Texas.
“This MERIT Award is only a reflection of the wonderful, dedicated group I have and the wonderful collaboration with investigators at Wilford Hall Medical Center, at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS), and in Argentina. The latter have helped us study children from Buenos Aires whose mothers are HIV infected,” Dr. Ahuja said.
Dr. Ahuja thanked the STVHCS for its strong support, including Jose R. Coronado, F.A.C.H.E., director; Richard Bauer, M.D., chief of staff; and Peter Melby, M.D., associate chief of staff for research and development. He also thanked Seema Ahuja, M.D., of STVHCS and Health Science Center associate professor of medicine, who has been a co-investigator in several of his studies.
