research organizations housed in our same institution. so, we ve renamed ourselves bridge hiv. and i m going to tell you a little story because i have sitting here. we got a grant from the tap root organization, which is a group that does pro bono work for nonprofit organizations in a variety of areas. and tim led two of our projects, one of which was to help us rename ourselves because we knew that it was confusing for us to be called the hiv research section when so many of us do research. we are called bridge hiv because we re a bridge to the east bay, to our international collaboraters, from the past, the very beginning of the epidemic when there was a research study called the san francisco clinic city cohort study or the hepatitis b cohort study, that specimens from is that study were used to develop the very first hiv antibody test to where a link to the past and the future. so, we re a link to the past and the future, and more than anything we re a link to the communi
clinical resources that we need, the laboratories that we need to invite the doctors and the researchers to come here and help us discover the latest efforts and to make sure we continue that progress. and i m here today to thank a lot of the people that include dr. buck binder and barbara and the wonderful health commission that has been working, but also just a few years ago, if you saw what the center was and i used to work in this building at the top level, a barbecue up front of all placeses, a saloon, people used to wear their boots to have the greatest barbecue they could have. and working that out with the hiv unit and research of our public health, working with our real estate, working with our department of technology and our city administrator. but ultimately working with our department of public works and mohammed at the helm, making sure this got done on time within budget, having the architects and engineers under [speaker not understood] working with the expe
test to where a link to the past and the future. so, we re a link to the past and the future, and more than anything we re a link to the community. and our motto is where science meets community. our team does really cutting edge research on different kinds of prevention strategies, pre-exposure prophylaxis. and if you go to our website, join prep hiv, you ll see all of the many exciting studies that we have as well as our partnership with san francisco city clinic in launching the first demonstration project of pre-exposure prophylaxis, taking antihiv medicines to prevent new infections. we re studying topical gels, retro microbicide. the way we re going to end this epidemic is through a vaccine, we ve controlled other infectious diseases through a cure. we re proud of our staff who contribute to this as well as the many study participants. and i m just going to close with a quick word about the project. the way that this project came about was actually one of our staff memb
the hiv prevention section formerly led it now it s led by tracy packer who is here in the crowd. (applause) and stacey leads an amazing team of people. they not only oversee and set the priorities for hiv prevention in the entire city and serve as really, again, one of the flagship prevention programs globally in making decisions about how to have the biggest impact on driving down new infections. but they re also a world class research organization that does research on testing, on linkage to care, community viral load, treatment of substance use as a way to prevent new hiv infections. and she, again, has a very difficult verse and very talented team and we re really excited to work with them as well. (applause) and then finally i want to introduce my staff. we were formally known as the hiv research section. but as you can see we have these other world class research organizations housed in our same institution. so, we ve renamed ourselves bridge hiv. and i m going t
dear friends, thank you for invieedthing me to participate in the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the san francisco department of public health s new bridge hiv research facility. while i am unable to be with you in person, i joan you in celebrating the opening of the state-of-the-art research center which was constructed with federal funding through the national institutes of health and the american recovery and reinvest act. i would like to recognize two outstanding leaders in our fight against hiv/aids. your executive director dr. susan bookbinder and director of public health barbara garcia. also please join me in thanking mayor ed lee for his leadership in assuring that san francisco ans living with hiv/aids continue to have access to the care they need. (applause) the fight against hiv/aids has been one of my top legislative priorities for 25 years. as one of the earliest and hardest hit cities, san francisco has also been at the forefront of responding to the cr