Industry Collaboration Group member since 2012
Professor in HIV Medicine and communicable disease
Imperial College London
UK
Sarah Fidler works as a clinical doctor and senior academic at Imperial College London, where her main focus of research is the strategic use of antiretroviral therapy and novel innovative therapies towards an HIV cure. She led the international randomized SPARTAC trial testing the use of short-course ART in acute infection. Its findings led to a large cluster randomized trial among urban communities in Zambia and South Africa (HPTN 071 PopART), which tested the impact of a universal HIV test-and-treat programme to reduce HIV incidence.
Through the HIV CHERUB UK collaboration, with colleagues in Oxford, Kings, Cambridge and UCL, Sarah led several observational studies exploring measures of the HIV reservoir and immune responses among people living with HIV (HEATHER, PITCH). The team works very closely with community advocates, and public engagement is a core part of the CHERUB approach. More recently, the collaboration supported clinical trials of ART plus new therapies towards a cure for HIV. The RIVER trial explored a “kick and kill” approach among treated primary HIV infection. Currently the consortium is enrolling into a double blinded randomized trial testing HIV-specific broadly neutralizing antibodies (RIO) to control HIV, instead of antiretroviral therapy. The RIO trial is in partnership with the University of Oxford and Rockefeller and is recruiting across the UK.
Sarah provides clinical care to young adults with perinatally acquired HIV and a tertiary referral service for individuals with indeterminate HIV tests and spontaneous viral controllers.