Analysis of HIV-AIDS:

Patrick M. Tarwater, Ph.D., associate professor of biostatistics,
School of Public Health El Paso Regional Campus

Tarwater uses his biostatistics expertise both in his own research on HIV-AIDS and in development of a biostatistical consulting group for health sciences research.

Patrick M. Tarwater, Ph.D.

At the School of Public Health, he has founded the Data Center for Preclinical and Clinical Research, which manages and analyzes data for eight projects with more than $25 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health. These projects include collaborations with the Department of Comparative Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

“My research experience has been the application of biostatistical methods for the analysis of HIV infection, treatment and natural history,” Tarwater said.

Recently, he published in AIDS as primary author in collaboration with the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) regarding the prognostic value of HIV RNA levels for development of AIDS in individuals currently on highly active antiretroviral therapy. He and a collaborator at the Retrovirus Laboratory at Johns Hopkins recently published in JAMA results from a macaque SIV study that demonstrated the ability of the antibiotic minocycline to suppress viral replication in the brain.

After earning his doctorate in biometry from the UT School of Public Health, he joined the faculty in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins.

“Specifically, I worked in the Stat-Epi research group, which acted as the Data Coordinating Center for the MACS, a cohort study designed to characterize the natural history of HIV infection, and for the Women’s Interagency HIV Study, a cohort study of HIV positive women,” he said. “In this position, I gained extensive experience in the area of HIV infection and progression that I have maintained in my current research pursuits.”