Jintanant Ananworanich has a broad background in HIV medicine and has led over 100 clinical trials in Thailand. Her earlier works have dealt with the pharmacokinetics of antiretrovirals, characterisation and management of drug resistant HIV, HIV-associated co-infections and comorbidities and novel strategies for treating HIV. Her current research is on acute HIV infection, HIV cure and HIV-associated neurocognition in adults and children. She has been the principal investigator of several projects funded by the US National Institutes of Health on the effects of HIV on brain function and HIV reservoirs in adults and children. She initiated and continues to lead the RV254 acute HIV infection study in which acutely infected Thais are identified and treated immediately. These studies have led to new knowledge about HIV pathogenesis in early infection. She is protocol chair of four studies evaluating interventions aimed at achieving HIV remission in adults treated during acute HIV infection.

As professor of Internal Medicine at the UvA, Dr Ananworanich will expand and drive multidisciplinary research in the field of acute HIV infection, HIV cure and pediatric/adolescent HIV in Thailand. At the same time, she will ensure fruitful intersection and synergy with very similar lines of research conducted by the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD) in collaboration with a number of departments within the AMC. With her broad understanding of the issues facing children and adults with HIV infection, she will bridge the collaborations between basic and clinical researchers in various fields (i.e., stimulating translational research) both within the AMC and internationally. The overall goal of mutual interest between Dr. Ananworanich and the AMC investigators is to initiate and stimulate research into the pathogenesis of HIV persistence and strategies to contain and eradicate HIV persistence, as well as lessen HIV’s adverse effects on the brain in children and adults.

Dr Ananworanich is associate director for Therapeutics Research at the US Military HIV Research Programme in Maryland (US) and co-director of the Southeast Asia Research Collaboration on HIV at the Thai Red Cross AIDS Research Center in Bangkok. She earned her medical degree in Thailand and has three US Board certifications in paediatrics, allergy and immunology, and clinical and laboratory immunology.

Dr Ananworanich, who obtained her PhD from the UvA in 2008, is a member of the Steering Committee of the International AIDS Society Towards HIV Cure Initiative, and a member of the HIV cure committees of the US NIH-funded ACTG and IMPAACT networks. Over the course of her career, Dr Ananworanich has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and is also chief editor of the Journal of Virus Eradication.