Marion Peters, MD, is an internationally renowned hepatologist. She is the John V. Carbone Professor of Medicine at University of California San Francisco and is Chief of Hepatology Research in Gastroenterology.
Peters trained in internal medicine, specializing in gastroenterology, hepatology and immunology in Australia, at the University of Southern California and at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her research focuses on viral hepatitis; immunology of the liver, including the role of host responses on viral hepatitis; and the effect of alcohol and HIV on liver disease progression.
She has been a major scientific leader in the AIDS Clinical Trials Group. She has held numerous positions in the ACTG since 1999, including chairing the Liver Diseases Subcommittee and Hepatitis Research Agenda Committee. Peters currently chairs the Hepatitis Transformative Science Group (HEP TSG).
“The HEP TSG is comprised of clinicians and scientists from U.S. and international sites with diverse interests and patients,” Peters says. “Our vision is to provide HCV (hepatitis C virus) therapy to all patients living with HCV and HIV co-infection and patients with HCV mono-infection.”
She says the group’s goals include:
- Devising novel trial designs to accelerate evaluation and approval of new drugs and drug regimens in viral hepatitis.
- Expanding and strengthening clinical site capacity to carry out hepatitis trials.
- Strengthening capacity to diagnose; monitor; and evaluate clinical, virological and immunological outcomes.
- Strengthening hepatitis virologic and pharmacology research capacity for studies of drug-drug interactions between DAAs (direct-acting antivirals), ART (antiretroviral therapy) and other medications.
- Mentoring and supporting new investigators to pursue this agenda.
She was a team member of a major therapeutic study of HIV and HCV co-infection (A5071; New England Journal of Medicine, 2004) and co-chaired the first study comparing adefovir and tenofovir for HIV and hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection (A5127; Hepatology 2006; 44: 1110-1116). She was an active contributing protocol team member to A5220 and many sub-analyses of A5071 and A5127. She has continued to contribute to the ACTG through patient referrals and management of HIV and hepatitis co-infected patients. Most recently she is co-chair of study A5269: The Activity of Nitazoxanide in Addition to Pegylated interferon and Ribavirin in Chronic HCV-HIV Co-infected Patients.