The V-POLARIS team hosted the satellite meeting to the Research Society on Alcohol’s annual meeting in San Antonio on June 20, 2026. The meeting began with opening remarks from Dr. Kendall Bryant, the Director of HIV/AIDS Research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He spoke on the NIAAA focus of implementation science.
The group then watched the following presentations:
- Scott Braithwaite, Cost-effectiveness of screening and treating alcohol use and depression for HIV prevention under varying assumptions in Zimbabwe and KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
- Madeleine J. Bentley, “I feel like I never am doing enough: Provider Perspectives on Identifying Unhealthy Alcohol Use and Initiating Care in Three HIV Clinics across the U.S.”
- Adelyn Garcia, Clinical usability of digital support for an intervention to reduce bothersome symptoms from polypharmacy and alcohol use among persons with HIV.
- Patricia E. Molina, Food and alcohol outlet environment promote unhealthy behaviors that synergistically enhance comorbidity risk in people with HIV.
- Kaitlin Couvillion, Extracellular vesicles from ethanol- and metabolically-stressed hepatocyte spheroids increase immune cell activation in PBMCs from people with HIV • Seema Singh, HIV Tat- and alcohol-induced neuroinflammation: Role of ER stress-NLRP6 signaling.
- Natalie Chichetto, Longitudinal associations of depressive symptoms and PEth with systemic inflammation among older adults with and without HIV: A probiotic pilot study.
- Judy Hahn for Amanda Miller, Incentives to reduce alcohol use as a strategy to reduce intimate partner violence among people co-infected with HIV and TB: secondary findings from the DIPT Study in Uganda.
- Elizabeth Austin, The role of economic deprivation in PrEP receipt in a national sample of U.S. veterans.
New to the agenda this year was a lightning round of 5-minute talks:
- Joe Coleman, Multilevel predictors of alcohol use in sexual contexts among recent Latino immigrants: A longitudinal analysis.
- Scott Edwards, Comparative effects of alcohol and cannabis use on pain and cognition outcomes in the New Orleans Alcohol Use in HIV (NOAH) cohort.
- Rebecca Fisk-Hoffman, Barriers and facilitators of interventions for alcohol use in HIV and TB care: A qualitative study among persons with HIV and providers.
- Curtis Gabriel, Alcohol use and bile acids in people with HIV • Smita Ghare, Hazardous alcohol use compromises adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and promotes gut microbial dysbiosis: Relevance to HIV prevention outcomes.
- Kayla McNeely, Alcohol-associated behavioral health syndemics across menopause among women with and without HIV: Latent class and latent transition analyses.
- Mollie Monnig, Acute alcohol effects on markers of microbial translocation and immune activation in people with HIV and controls: A randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
- Winnie Muyindike, Effect of alcohol use on active TB incidence among persons with HIV and latent TB who received TB preventive therapy.
- Moses New-Aaron, Revisiting pioglitazone: A re-emerging therapeutic targeting bioenergetic dysfunction in alcohol- and HIV-exposed alveolar macrophages.
The following posters were presented:
- Elizabeth Austin – Provider attitudes towards and needed implementation supports for prescribing medications for alcohol use disorder (MAUD) in HIV primary care settings.
- Geetanjali Chander – Alcohol use severity is associated with increased risk for all-cause mortality among people with HIV reporting alcohol use.
- Tekeda Ferguson – Social support moderating the effects of discrimination and HIV-related stigma on alcohol use in people with HIV.
- Rebecca Fisk-Hoffman – Alcohol use before and during treatment for drug susceptible tuberculosis among persons with HIV in Mbarara, Uganda.
- Rebecca Giguere – Less is more: A qualitative examination of the acceptability and feasibility of a gamified-contingency management intervention.
- Judy Hahn presenting for Amanda Miller– Perspectives and experiences of receiving phosphatidyethanol results to support alcohol reduction among people living with HIV in Uganda.
- Lamia Haque – Feasibility, acceptability, and safety of Spironalactone for alcohol use disorder among patients with HIV and polypharmacy: an open-label pilot study.
- Hannah Hoogerwoerd – Dynamic trajectories of the allostatic-interoceptive network: Within-person adaptation to reductions in alcohol use during contingency management.
- Yana Jayampathy – Perceptions of alcohol use and HIV risk amongst men living with alcohol use disorder in rural South Africa.
- Justin Knox – Intervening to improve HIV treatment and reduce drinking: A pilot randomized controlled trial among people living with HIV (PLWH)
- Gayathri Kothawar – Validity of self-reported alcohol use and PrEP adherence among MSM in USA: evidence from PEth and TFV-DP biomarkers.
- Lisbeth Rubio- Alcohol, dietary quality, and depressive symptoms across 90 days: Findings from the syndemic intervention with microbiome probiotics pilot study.
- Kate Worwag – Diet quality moderates associations between alcohol use and systemic inflammation in sample of adults with HIV.
The International URBAN ARCH Center facilitated one-on-one mentoring sessions for 15 pairs of early-stage and senior investigators.
Overall, it was another memorable meeting in the books where we discussed important scientific updates and enjoyed collegial company.
