Clinical Investigator & Staff

Stephen Brown, MD, Medical Director

Dr. Brown has been the Medical Director at ARA since 1997. Dr. Brown attended Hahnemann University Medical School and performed his internship there as well. Previously, Dr. Brown completed a research fellowship in Neurobehavioral Research at the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC) at UCSD, under the direction of Drss Igor Grant, Allen McCutchan, and Hamp Atkinson. Subsequently, Dr Brown managed clinical trials on drug interventions for cognitive impairment for HIV infected subjects (NIMH and Industry sponsored). He holds a regulatory certification (RACS) from the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS), and is a Certified Principal Investigator (CPI) from the Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians. Dr. Brown is a member of the Society for Clinical Trials, the Drug Information Association, the American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians and the Safety Evaluation Committee (SEC) for the Merck HIV vaccine program. He served on the Institutional Review Board at UCSD for two years. During his tenure at ARA, he has been the site Principal Investigator for 52 clinical trials relating to HIV infection, including three Phase I, one Phase II-b and one Phase III trial for HIV vaccines. Since ARA also functions as a Contract Research Organization (CRO), Dr Brown has submitted IND’s for two pharmaceutical companies, designed and managed their Phase I clinical trials, overseen data analysis and submitted the final study reports to the FDA.  Under Dr. Brown’s leadership, ARA became the first non-profit organization to in-license a drug from NIH. He was the Principal Investigator in an NIH-funded award for the development of a new anti-HIV drug targeting viral reservoirs (NSC623310). Currently he is a Co-Investigator in a UARP-CARC grant investigating the effects of prostratin on decreasing HIV viral reservoirs in gut mucosa (CCO2LA001), and a grant for the development of rectal microbicides (U19-1U19AI0614). ARA and Dr. Brown have had longstanding relationships with several UCLA researchers, including Drs Jerome Zack, Judith Currier, Ian McGowan and Peter Anton of the UCLA Center for HIV and Digestive Diseases. Dr. Brown also holds a staff position at Tarzana Treatment Center, the largest provider of comprehensive drug and alcohol treatment programs in Southern California, and a major provider of primary care, HIV services and testing in the San Fernando Valley. Dr. Brown oversees all clinical activities at ARA.

Marjan Hezareh, PhD, Scientific Director

Dr. Hezareh has been ARA’s Scientific Director since 2001. Dr. Hezareh received her Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Hezareh has worked in the field of HIV since 1996 and has extensive experience in HIV pathogenesis and immunology. Dr. Hezareh performed two post-doctoral fellowships at the University of San Diego, California, and at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla under the direction of Drs. Celsea Spina and Dennis Burton. During her time as a research associate she completed several research projects, including the contribution of antibody Fc-mediated functions on HIV clearance in non-human primates and the investigation of viral replication in PBMCs of HIV patients undergoing long-term antiviral therapy. As ARA’s Scientific Director, Dr. Hezareh supervises all scientific activities and co-ordinates pre-clinical studies of potential anti-HIV drugs among ARA's national and international collaborators.  She designs scientific projects in collaboration with our scientific collaborators, analyzes and interprets scientific data, drafts research papers, research updates and grant applications. She is involved in the design and implementation of ARA self-funded clinical research protocols and leads the preparation of the end-of-study clinical reports required by the FDA. During her tenure at ARA, Dr. Hezareh acted as a Principal and Co- Investigator in several studies, including the Merck Phase I study of a HIV vaccine candidate (Co-PI) and a Phase I study evaluating the efficacy of a potentially new HIV phenotypic test (PI). She is the Co-Investigator in two NIH-funded grants for the development of a rectal microbicide (U19-1U19AI0614), and a potential anti-HIV drug targeting viral reservoirs (UARP-CARC, CCO2LA001). In addition, Dr. Hezareh supervises the activity of ARA’s Scientific Advisory Commitee (SAC), as well as the activity of 2 fully equipped BL-2 laboratories at ARA.

Michele Vertucci, PA-C

Ms. Vertucci began her medical career after graduating with a BS in Biology from Marquette University in 1974.  She was a laboratory aide at Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco from 1975 to 1979. She then attended nursing school from 1977 to 1979, obtaining her Associate degree in Nursing from College of Marin.  Moving south to Orange County, California, she worked as a registered nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital from 1979 to 1982 in a post-surgical ward. Her last 2 years at St. Joseph’s, she was the charge nurse for a ward of 45 patients.  In 1982, she began attending the physician assistant program at the University of Southern California and obtained her certificate and license as a physician assistant in 1984. From1989 to 1998, she was involved with the ddI and ddC drug studies, as well as fluconazole, foscarnet, epogen, d4T,3TC, Sustiva and Preveon while in private practice.  In 1998, she joined AIDS Research Alliance and began her research career in HIV/AIDS.  She has been involved in over 50 clinical trials as a study coordinator. She has active licenses as a physician assistant and a nurse practitioner.  She holds a national certification as a physician assistant. She is a member of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, the Association of Clinical Research Professionals and the California Academy of Physician Assistants. In 2004, she became the Clinical Trials Manager at ARA and, besides her coordinator duties, she supervises the regulatory duties for each trial.

Corie Castro, Clinical Research Assistant

Corie Castro graduated from De Ocampo Memorial College, Philippines with a B.S. degree in medical technology.  He has worked as a medical assistant for two private practices in Los Angeles from 1985 to 1994. Corie Castro has been with AIDS Research Alliance since 1994 as a senior research assistant.  He is the first contact person at ARA for clinical trials. He performs the telephone screening, obtains patients vital signs and collects and processes the specimens required for each protocol according to the IATA regulations. He maintains the study data base for each trial, the temperature logs for all of the freezers, refrigerators, and pharmacy cabinets. He maintains statistics on subject visits, telephone calls, sources of trial referrals and how many participants screen and enroll in each study.

Erica Yang, Clinical Research Assistant

Bio coming soon!

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