Medicine Grand Rounds

"Non-Tuberculous Mycobacterial Infections: New Twists in the Treatment of Old Foes"
Constance Benson, MD
Constance A. Benson, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine, Senior Attending Physician, and Vice Chair for Education in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego. She currently is the Director of the UCSD Antiviral Research Center (AVRC), the Principal Investigator (PI) of the UCSD NIH-sponsored Collaborative HIV Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), a senior investigator in the UCSD AVRC HIV Clinical Research Site (CRS) and serves on the Executive Committee of the UCSD Center for Innovative Phage Applications and Therapeutics. She served as the UCSD Infectious Disease Training Program Director until 2021. Dr. Benson received her M.D. degree, Cum Laude from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1978, completed her residency in Internal Medicine in 1981, served three years on active duty in the U.S. Navy as an internist until 1984, and completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Rush University in Chicago in 1986. She was recruited to the faculty of Rush University in the Division of Infectious Diseases in 1986, where she served as an attending physician and a research faculty member until she was recruited to the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Colorado at Denver in 1997. After serving 8 years on the faculty at University of Colorado, she was recruited to lead the HIV Clinical Trials Unit in the Division of Infectious Diseases at UCSD in December 2004. Dr. Benson is an internationally recognized clinical investigator working in the fields of HIV, tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, and SARS-CoV-2 clinical and translational investigation. From 1995 to 2003, Dr. Benson served as the Vice Chair and led the Scientific Agenda Steering Committee of the NIH/NIAID AIDS Clinical Trials Group Network (ACTG) and from 2003 to 2010 served as the Principal Investigator of the ACTG Network and Chair of its Executive Committee. During her 15 years in the scientific and administrative leadership of the ACTG network, the ACTG expanded its HIV therapeutic research activities to establish international clinical research sites in countries most affected by the HIV pandemic, including South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Haiti, Brazil, Peru, India, and Thailand. She oversaw the establishment, training and development of virology, immunology, and pharmacology research laboratories in the US and at international sites, a pharmacogenomics research effort and DNA specimen repository in both the US and internationally for use in HIV-related genomics research and developed site laboratory capacity to conduct sophisticated diagnostic testing for HIV, tuberculosis, fungal infections, and other infectious complications of HIV to support ACTG Network trials. She further led the expansion of the ACTG Network activities to include investigational interventions to treat hepatitis B and C and tuberculosis in both mono- and co-infected individuals as part of the network’s scientific agenda. As the PI of the NIH/NIAID-sponsored UCSD HIV Collaborative CTU and Director of the UCSD Antiviral Research Center, she manages an extensive portfolio of clinical and translational research projects, grants, and contracts, and oversees the conduct of multiple national and international multicenter clinical trials in the fields of HIV, viral hepatitis, influenza, tuberculosis, other HIV-related opportunistic complications of global health impact and most recently SARS-CoV-2. Her own major areas of research interest include drug-resistant
Mycobacterium tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases, other HIV-related opportunistic infections, new antiretroviral drug development, the treatment of HIV infection and its complications in resource-limited international settings, and the antiviral treatment of SARSCoV-2 infections. Most recently her research has focused on the treatment and prevention of HIV-associated TB and multidrug resistant TB; development of adjunctive therapy with mycobacteriophages for non-tuberculous mycobacteria as part of UCSD’s Center for Innovative
Phage Applications and Therapeutics (IPATH) and antiviral therapy for the treatment Covid-19/SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Benson also served as the UCSD co-director for research capacity development for the former NIH-sponsored University of Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) Medical
Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and leads research training efforts for the current D43 training grants led by Dr. Emilia Noor Mahomed in Maputo, Mozambique, and Dr. Robert Schooley at UCSD. She also serves as a training grant faculty member on two Divisional NIH
T32 training grants. She leads UCSD’s Covid-19 Clinical Trials Review Committee and is a member of UCSD’s COVID-19 Therapeutic Task Force. Aside from her UCSD responsibilities, Dr. Benson has served on numerous NIH ad hoc study sections and advisory panels, on the Scientific Program Committees for the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA), the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), and the International AIDS Society (IAS), and on the Board of Directors of the International Antiviral Society-USA, the CROI Foundation Board, the Zimbabwe AIDS Treatment Assistance Project, and Christie’s Place (a non-profit organization supporting women and families affected by HIV infection in San Diego). She is a Deputy Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases, a reviewer for 12 major medical journals, and lectures frequently both nationally and internationally on topics within her areas of research and clinical expertise. Dr. Benson is a member of the International AIDS Society, the HIV Medicine Association of the IDSA, the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, and is a Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and the American College of Physicians. To date, she has published more than 250 original manuscripts, invited reviews, and book chapters, mentored more than 70 trainees in their research and clinical training in ID, and conducts clinical investigation and research as a subspecialist in Infectious Diseases within UCSD Health in San Diego.

Department of Medicine Grand Rounds
The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Tucson designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
All Faculty, CME Planning Committee Members, and the CME Office Reviewers have disclosed that they have no financial relationships with commercial interests that would constitute a conflict of interest concerning this CME activity.
Learning Objectives:

• Diagnose a variety of internal medicine illnesses
• Understand more clearly advances in therapy
• Become truly professional physicians