David Haas, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases within the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is also a Professor of Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine at Meharry Medical College. He is also a board-certified infectious diseases specialist.
As an accomplished HIV clinical trialist and leader in human pharmacogenomic research relevant to HIV infection and its therapy, Dr. Haas has led the design and implementation of dozens of HIV clinical trials since 1994- both single site studies and multicenter projects. He established and has led the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) Clinical Research Site at Vanderbilt since its inception. He previously chaired the Pharmacology Committee for the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), has led the ACTG's pharmacogenomics program since 2000, and in 2011 was elected to serve on the ACTG Executive Committee. He oversaw the establishment of the ACTG Human DNA Repository, and is now extending DNA banking to non-US ACTG sites in resource-limited countries in worldwide. His work with the ACTG led to the seminal observation that a frequent CYP2B6 polymorphism predicts delayed clearance of efavirenz, which largely explains increased plasma exposure among individuals of African descent, and may help predict CNS side effects and virologic response. He is PI of a substantial, collaborative, multidisciplinary R01 entitled "Pharmacogenomics of HIV Therapy". He is highly engaged in collaborative, multidisciplinary research with an emphasis on the importance of human genomics for antiretroviral disposition, efficacy, and toxicity. He is also associate director of the Tennessee Center for AIDS Research.