Richard Marlink, M.D.

Senior Research and Executive Director
HAI
651 Huntington Avenue, FXB 635
Boston, MA 02115
phone: 617-432-4114
fax: 617-4932-4545
e-mail: marlink@hsph.harvard.edu

As a medical oncologist and hematologist, Dr. Marlink's research initially involved collaborative clinical trials of new anticancer agents and then antivirals used in HIV infection. Part of the team that initially identified HIV-2, the second AIDS virus, he became involved in laboratory research at the Harvard School of Public Health and in epidemiologic and clinical studies in Senegal, West Africa. There he helped coordinate studies concerning the clinical and biologic characteristics of both HIV-1 and HIV-2. In addition to serving in various teaching and clinical capacities, Dr. Marlink has directed an effort at the Harvard School of Public Health that provides laboratory training and support to investigations involving intravenous drug users in the United States and other populations in Mexico, Senegal, and Thailand.

In 1994, as Executive Director of HAI, Dr. Marlink initiated a university-wide evaluation of the Institute's mission and a restructuring of its programs. With the largest concentration of AIDS researchers in the nation represented among the Harvard-affiliated faculty, HAI is in a unique position to promote research to curb the HIV epidemic and to help those most affected by the epidemic, nationally and internationally. Dr. Marlink also helped spearhead a national re-evaluation of the AIDS research agenda via a program called "The Madison Project." He was co-chair for budgetary planning and coordination of the National Institutes of Health’s Office of AIDS Research FY 1997 Information Dissemination Planning Group on Research, and is presently a participant on the U.S. Public Health Service's "Panel on Clinical Practices for the Treatment of HIV Infection," which has produced the most recent clinical guidelines concerning antiviral treatment of HIV/AIDS for adults in the United States.

In addition to being the course director for the Arthur Ashe Program in AIDS Care at Harvard, Marlink is the principal investigator of the Enhancing Care Initiative, along with Sofia Gruskin (Acting Director, François-Xavier Bagnaud Center for Health and Human Rights), Michael Reich (Taro Takemi Professor of International Health Policy), and David Bloom (Deputy Director, Harvard Institute for International Development.) This initiative, supported by the Merck Company Foundation, is creating multi-disciplinary AIDS care teams in various developing countries to determine ways to enhance the clinical care of HIV-infected individuals.

Selected Publications

Marlink R. Lessons from the second AIDS virus, HIV-2. AIDS 1996;10:689-99.

Soto-Ramirez L, Renjifo B, McLane MF, Marlink R, O'Hara R, Sutthent R, Wasi C, Vithayasai P, Vithayasai V, Apichartpiyakul C, Auewarakul P, Cruz VP, Chui D-S, Osathanondh R, Mayer K, Lee T-H, and Essex M. HIV-1 Langerhans' cell tropism associated with heterosexual transmission of HIV. Science 1996;271:1291-93.

Travers K, Mboup S, Marlink R, Guèye-Ndiaye A, Siby T, Thior I, Traoré I, Dieng-Sarr A., Sankalé JL, Mullins C, N'Doye I, Hsieh C-C, Essex M, and Kanki P. Natural protection against HIV-1 infection provided by HIV-2. Science 1995;268:1612-15.

Marlink R, Kanki P, Thior I, Travers K, Eisen G, Siby T, Traoré I, Hsieh CC, Dia MC, Gueye E-H, Hellinger J, Guèye-Ndiaye A, Sankalé JL, N'Doye I, Mboup S, and Essex M. Reduced rate of disease development after HIV-2 infection as compared to HIV-1. Science 1994;265:1587-90.

Marlink R. Biology and Epidemiology of HIV-2. AIDS In Africa, eds. Essex M, Mboup S, Kanki P, Kalengayi M. New York: Raven Press, 1994;97-108.