*Title: PhD Studentship in medical statistics*

Applications are invited for a Medical Research Council PhD
studentship based at the HIV Division, MRC Clinical Trials Unit (CTU).
 The studentship provides support for 3 years and is available from 1
October 1999. Applicants should have a good honours degree in a
relevant subject.

The CTU was created in October 1998 and has three Divisions: HIV,
Cancer, and a Division without Portfolio. The Director of the Unit is
Professor Janet Darbyshire. The HIV Division (previously the MRC HIV
Clinical Trials Centre) has been responsible for the MRC’s programme
of clinical trials in HIV infection and AIDS since it was set up in
1988 to co-ordinate the Concorde trial. (This was a controlled trial
of immediate versus deferred zidovudine in asymptomatic HIV-infected
patients.) The overall objective of the Division is to develop
effective preventive and therapeutic interventions for HIV infection
in adults and children. It also undertakes systematic meta-analyses
and addresses methodological issues related to trials in HIV infection
and questions about the natural history of HIV. The Head of the
Division is Dr Abdel Babiker.

*Proposed research*
The research will involve both a methodological and practical
component and will be based on data from previous studies conducted by
the Unit. Two possible topics are:

(1) Virological and immunological markers in HIV-infected children
Little is known about how laboratory markers, such as CD4 count and
viral load, change with age in HIV-infected children. Ideally, such
analyses would be based on children who have never received
antiretroviral therapy as this has a marked effect on relevant
markers. Limited data are available on treatment-naive children for
the longitudinal modelling of the relationships between CD4 count, RNA
viral load, and age. More extensive data are available on children
who have received treatment and this will require the development of
more complex methods.

(2) Surrogate endpoints in trials in HIV infection
Very few trials in HIV infection currently use clinical endpoints, and
viral load and CD4 count are commonly used as a surrogates. An
important issue that affects many of the trials being designed at the
Unit and elsewhere is the choice of the best non-clinical endpoint.
This include the marker (CD4 count, viral load, or both), the
appropriate summary statistic of the marker trajectory, and the issue
of missing data and informative dropouts. One possibility is to use
data from previous trials which have longer term clinical follow-up to
compare the alternative endpoints in terms of their ability to predict
treatment effect on subsequent clinical events.

*Applications*
Applicants should send a CV by post or e-mail to:
David Higgins
(MRC Studentship)
MRC Clinical Trials Unit
The Mortimer Market Centre
Capper Street
London WC1E 6AU
email: [log in to unmask]

The closing date for applications is July 12.

For further information please contact either Abdel Babiker or David
Dunn, Tel 0181 380 9991, email: [log in to unmask] or
[log in to unmask]


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