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The Prevention Project of the NYU Center for AIDS Research

Phone: 212-263-0362 Email: prevention@gcrc.med.nyu.edu


Under the direction of Dr. Michael Marmor, the Prevention Project is dedicated to behavioral and vaccine research for the prevention of HIV. Over the years, our projects have included:

  • 6 HIV vaccine studies, with 4 currently ongoing
  • an innovative study looking at possible biological resistance to HIV
  • HIV testing and outreach to high risk individuals on a mobile van and in other community venues
  • multiple HIV behavior studies

The Prevention Project is one of the few research sites to have conducted preventive research with a broad range of peoples affected by HIV, including men who have sex with men, women at risk, and injection drug users. Since 1981, over 3,500 individuals have participated in studies run by the Prevention Project.

For a list of on-going studies at the NYU/Bellevue ACTU, please visit the clinical trials section of this site or click here


Study Staff

  • Michael Marmor, PhD, is the Principal Investigator of the marmorPrevention Project. He was on the team in 1981 that identified and reported to the Centers for Disease Control the unusual occurrence of Kaposi's sarcoma among young gay men. This was one of the signal events marking the beginning of the HIV epidemic in the United States. Since that time, Dr. Marmor's group has become one of the nation's primary sites for HIV prevention research. Dr. Marmor has extensive experience in the design, conduct and analysis of epidemiologic and clinical trials, and he has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Marmor is also the Director of the Clinical Core of the NYU Center for AIDS Research that provides for biostatistical, epidemiologic and specimen management services for NYU's HIV/AIDS researchers.
  • Demetre Daskalakis, MD - Dr. Daskalakis is the study physician for the Prevention Project. He completed his medical school training at NYU School of Medicine. After completing residency and chief residency at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, he completed fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He was awarded the Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society's Kass Award for Clinic Excellence as a fellow. He returned to NYU where he developed a strong research interest in the health of men at risk for HIV infection after working at the Partner's AIDS Research Center focusing on the immunology and virology of Acute HIV infection. He developed a program offering HIV testing at New York City bathhouses and continues to develop programs focusing on this at-risk population. Dr. Daskalakis is also involved in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, where he was recently elected to a national committee, and the Primary Infection project. He provides care to HIV patients in the virology clinic at Bellevue Hospital and is involved in teaching resident physicians.
  • Michelle Cespedes, MD - Michelle S. Cespedes, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and an Investigator at New York University's AIDS Clinical Trials Unit. She received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital - Cornell. She completed her Infectious Disease Fellowship at New York University Her research areas of interest are HIV related women's health issues (prevention of mother to child transmission, primary care issues) and complications of HIV treatment (dyslipidemia, metabolic syndrome, opportunistic infections). She is currently the protocol vice-chair of the national AIDS Clinical Trial Group study A5240. Nationally, Dr Cespedes is a member of the Women's Health Committee of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group, HIV Medical Association and the Infectious Disease Society of America.
  • Robert Hagerty - is a Senior Research Coordinator at NYU and the site coordinator for the Prevention Project, robertwhere he is responsible for overseeing recruitment and conduct of the project's multiple studies. Robert joined the Prevention Project in 1995 after working as an HIV Educator in the Bellevue Hospital AIDS Program for 9 years. Robert's career at NYU has included several HIV vaccine studies, providing HIV rapid testing on our community mobile van, identifying patients with acute HIV infection, and the current NYU Testing Project, for which he is also the study coordinator. Robert has worked in HIV since 1986.
  • Gary Carlisle, RN - Gary has been a Research Nurse for the Prevention Project since 2001 and works primarily on our various Phase I and II preventive HIV vaccine clinical trials. Gary received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Hunter College. Before coming to NYU, he worked on a cardiac inpatient unit at Beth Israel Medical Center. Gary is particularly interested in our focus on individualized risk reduction counseling as a preventive intervention.
  • Richard Hutt, RN - Richard is a Senior Research Nurse. research nurse richardHe joined the Prevention Project in 2006 after working in clinical trials at NYU and collaborating with the group on various projects since 1993. His background is in nursing with over 23 years accumulated clinical experience. Currently he is involved in both preventative and behavioral studies and specializes in the identification and treatment of acute and recent HIV infection. Richard has worked in HIV care since 1989.
  • Richard Silvera - A life long New Yorker, Richard completed a Bachelor's of English Literature at New York University and is currently pursuing a Master's of Public Health. He has been with the Prevention Project since 2002 and has performed several roles including recruiter, HIV tester and counselor, and data associate. Currently Richard is primarily responsible for the scheduling and retention of study volunteers, HIV testing and counseling, and data management. He also assists in administration and regulatory.
  • Alith Maillard is a Medical Assistant with the Prevention Project. She is a trained phlebotomist,medical assistant hiv HIV tester and counselor and a Credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor. Alith's duties include conducting patient visits and processing specimens. Alith has worked in HIV/AIDS for more than 10 years, and as a Latina woman she feels committed to educating people about HIV risk and prevention. Alith habla espanol.
  • Dylan Stein - Dylan is a Research Data Associate at the Prevention Project. His responsibilities include HIV testing and counseling, specimen management and data entry for the Prevention Project studies and for the NYU Testing Project. After receiving a B.F.A from the Rhode Island School of Design, Dylan entered the Post Baccalaureate program at NYU to prepare for medical school. Dylan is the webmaster for HIVInfoSource.org.
  • Sandy L. Guerrero - Sandy started working for the NYU School of Medicine in the Department of Environmental Medicine in 1995 as a Project Assistant. Her work consists of both clerical duties and data entry. She is responsible for office management for the Prevention Project. Duties include data entry, filing, organizing and maintaining records for clinical staff, delivering specimens to appropriate laboratories, assisting in quality control of research data, and interacting with other departments in the Medical Center.