Keith W. Crawford, R.Ph., Ph.D.

Research Assistant professor, Department of Pharmacology, Howard University College of Medicine

Phone: 202-865-0017
Fax: 202-806-4453
Email: kwcrawford1@gmail.com
Website: www.keithwcrawford.com

Current HIV/AIDS Educational Activities:

Co-principal investigator, Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic AIDS Education and Training Center, Howard University site
Coordinates intensive clinical preceptorships and develops case-based, multidisciplinary trainings structured to improve the proficiency of clinical providers (physicians, pharmacists, nurses, physician-assistants, dentists, mental health professionals and nutritionists) in providing standard- of- care HIV management

Current HIV/AIDS Clinical Activities:

Works as a clinical pharmacist with the clinical team at the Howard University Center for Infectious Diseases Management and Research (CIDMAR) and the HUH CARES clinic.
Participates in treatment decisions including selecting antiretroviral drug regimen, interpretation of resistance tests, managing adverse drug reactions and drug-drug interactions, maximizing medication adherence, patient education and harm reduction counseling

Current HIV/AIDS Research Activities:

Research grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to identify biologic and virologic predictors of HIV disease progression and the impact of HAART on these indicators.
Basic science research focuses on sigma-2 receptors and the ability of receptor agonists to inhibit HIV infection of lymphocytes. Interested in a proteomic approach to identifying cellular proteins with the ability to restrict viral infections.

Keith Crawford conducts basic science research and clinical research in pharmacology. He is also a clinical pharmacist. He has received degrees from Cornell University (B.S.,Biology),Temple University (B.S. Pharmacy) and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Ph.D., Pharmacology). He completed a residency in clinical pharmacy at the National Institutes of Health. He later completed his postdoctoral Fellowship in the Laboratory of Biochemical pharmacology in the National Institutes of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the NIH. Dr. Crawford has a long history of involvement in HIV research and clinical care. Based on research in tumor biology and pharmacology, he showed that the activation of sigma-2 receptors on human lymphocytes rendered the cells resistant to HIV infection, presumably through a reduction of sphingomyelin lipid rafts. This action would interfere with both HIV infection of new lymphocytes as well as decreased budding and release of new virions from infected lymphocytes. He was awarded a patent for this discovery.

Dr. Crawford is currently an assistant professor in the department of pharmacology at Howard University College of Medicine. He has an active research grant studying HIV pathogenesis to identify biological and virologic predictors of disease progression in HIV infection. He practices as a clinical pharmacist as part of the infectious diseases team in two outpatient HIV specialty clinics at Howard University Hospital with expertise in HIV pharmacotherapy. In 2008, Dr. Crawford will be a visiting scientist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Clinical Pharmacology. He will work with the Hopkins AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG)

Dr. Crawford is currently serving as the principal investigator of the Howard University site of the Pennsylvania Mid-Atlantic AIDS Education and Training Center. The AETC comprise a network of national centers whose mission to reduce disparities in clinical outcomes from HIV disease in underserved populations. Medical providers including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, nutritionists and mental health professionals are targeted for training to increase their proficiency in the standard-of-care management of HIV infection.