Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research

Phyllis C Tien

Biography

 Dr. Tien is a clinical translational researcher who investigates chronic viral infections, specifically HIV and HCV, and their metabolic and inflammatory consequences on long term organ injury (e.g. liver, bone and vascular injury). As part of this work, she also studies novel non-invasive techniques to estimate steatosis and fibrosis using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and ultrasound-based transient elastography as well as novel CT and MR imaging methods to measure bone and vascular injury. She is the Principal Investigator of an NIH funded R01 study to investigate the link between visceral adiposity, HIV, and HCV to the pathogenesis of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis and an NIH funded K24 award to mentor early career investigators to examine the effects of HIV/HCV coinfection on liver, bone and vascular injury. She is also one of three Principal Investigators of the Northern California site of the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), which is the largest and longest running prospective cohort of the progression of HIV infection in women in the US. 

She serves as the Chair of the WIHS Executive Committee, and is a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Antiretroviral Therapy Guidelines Panel for Adults and Adolescents and the NIH AIDS Clinical Epidemiology Study Section.

Research Interest

 My background is in the study of metabolic consequences of HCV and HIV infection, particularly insulin resistance, lipodystrophy, and hepatic steatosis in men and women.  Specifically, I am investigating the relationship of visceral adiposity, HIV, HCV and its metabolic and inflammatory consequences on hepatic steatosis and its progression.  As part of this work, I am also investigating the use of non-invasive techniques to estimate steatosis and fibrosis including magnetic resonance spectroscopy and transient elastography. My research is conducted in the setting of observational cohort studies such as  the Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), a multi-site prospective study that investigates the progression of HIV in women and the Study of Fat Redistribution and Metabolic Change in HIV infection (FRAM).