News & Press Releases
Happy Holidays from the Benhabbour Lab!!!
From a delicious breakfast, to some serious white elephant steals/battles, to fun arts and games! This was a fun way to end a very productive year! 🙂
CROI 2025!
#CDC#BenhabbourLab#CROI 2025! Congratulations to the Benhabbour Lab and our amazing collaborators at the CDC and UNC for having all three abstracts accepted at CROI for oral and poster presentations! Look forward to sharing our exciting … Read more
Congratulations Jasmine!
Congrats Jasmine for receiving the CROI New Investigator Award to attend and present her work in San Fransisco! Very exciting work!!
Happy Thanksgiving from the Benhabbour Lab!
The 2024 Potluck had a plethora of different dishes – from Sweet Potato Casserole (Trinity) to Thy’s Sushi Bake! Wishing everyone the best thanksgiving from the Benhabbour lab!
Happy Halloween from the Benhabbour Lab!
Happy Halloween from the Benhabbour lab. Congratulations to Kayla and Nanditha for winning our costume contest!
Congratulations to the UNC and CDC team for having their Nature Communications paper, “Ultra-Long acting in-situ forming implants with cabotegravir protect female macaques against rectal SHIV infection” nominated for the 2024 Charles C. Shepard Science Award!Â
Rahima visits the CDC campus!
Congratulations to Rahima for presenting at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Rahima was able to catch up with some of her colleagues, Roger Ptak (top), Kristen Porter (left), and Marina Protopopova (right).
Congratulations to Thy Le for being Selected for a Poster Presentation at R4P in Peru!
Thy is a rising 4th year in our lab. Thy enjoyed sharing her research in Lima, Peru!
UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts stopping by to learn more about the lab!
Earlier this summer, Chancellor Lee Roberts visited our lab to learn more about our research. It was truly a pleasure!
Congratulations Dr. Sarah Anne Howard!!!
A HUGE Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Anne Howard who successfully defended their PhD Thesis on September 25th, 2024! Sarah Anne is a talented worker and she will be missed greatly by the lab. However, we … Read more
Rahima Presenting at the 2024 MATRIX Investigator Meeting!
The 2024 MATRIX Investigator Meeting was held in Nairobi, Kenya where Rahima presented on an innovative MPT IVR development currently funded by the MATRIX and USAID. Rahima was also able to visit the KEMRI clinical … Read more
Congratulations to Pooja for acceptance into NYU Biomedical Engineering Department!
We wish you much success on your next adventure!
Congratulations to Thy for receiving a scholarship to present her work at the HIVR4P Conference in October!
Thy will present her work at the 5th HIV Research for Prevention Conference in Lima, Peru this October! Congratulations Thy!
Congratulations to our 2024 Graduates – Pooja Shah and Ava Cohen!
Pooja Shah will pursue her doctorate degree at NYU in the biomedical engineering department! Ava Cohen will start her new position at AstraZeneca! We could not be more proud! Congratulations to you both!
Congratulations to the Benhabbour Lab for having their paper nominated and selected for the CDC’s 2024 Shepard Science Award!
The Nature Communications paper, Ultra-Long Acting in-situ forming implants with Cabotegravir protect female macaques against rectal SHIV infection, has been selected for nomination for the CDC’s Shepard Science Award. This paper was nominated to represent … Read more
New Approaches for Male Birth Control
Learn more about the male birth control initiative between the Benhabbour Lab and Eppin Pharma here.
Congratulations to Sarah Anne Howard on the DPMP Travel Award!
Sarah Anne will be presenting her work at the Controlled Release Society (CRS) 2024 Annual meeting and expo in Bologna Italy. Congratulations Sarah Anne!
Congratulations to Sarah Anne and Thy for being Selected for Oral Presentations at CRS – Italy 2024!
Congratulations to both Thy Le and Sarah Anne Howard for being selected for an oral presentation at the Controlled Release Society 2024 Conference in Bologna, Italy. Thy Le also was awarded a travel grant for … Read more
Congratulations to Thy Le for being awarded the BME International Travel Award!
Thy will be presenting her work at the Controlled Release Society (CRS) 2024 Annual meeting and expo in Bologna Italy. Congratulations Thy!
Congratulations to Thy Le for being awarded the BME Graduate Student Service Award!
Thy Le has volunteered her time to support the UNC Chancellor’s Science Scholars Program, which is dedicated to increasing STEM involvement among historically underrepresented groups. By helping to recruit and interview future scholars, as well as … Read more
Jasmine King Awarded 50K BME Instrumentation Grant!
Congratulations to Jasmine King on being awarded a 50K BME Instrumentation grant. This grant will be used for purchasing a brand new Quantstudio 7 Pro RT-PCR Instrument from ThermoFisher! Congratulations, Jasmine!
Dr. Jasmine King promoted to Research Faculty Professor at UNC!
Jasmine has fully transitioned from a post-doctoral researcher to a research faculty member in the Benhabbour lab. Jasmine is immensely involved in the lab – through collaborations through the BME department, various other universities and … Read more
Isabella Young Receives the 2023 CROI New Investigator Award
At the 2023 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI), Isabella Young was awarded the 2023 New Investigator Award. She met Dr. Fauci in person and presented her work to attendees. Congrats Isabella!
CDC-UNC Collaboration Yields Potential Long-term HIV Protection
For people at high risk of contracting HIV, missing doses of their daily HIV prevention pills can have big consequences. In some cases, missing a pill can lead to lack of protection against the virus. … Read more
January 2022 – Jasmine King receives prestigious NIH T32 Fellowship in collaboration with UNC/Duke Clinical Pharmacology Program!
Congrats Jasmine!
January 2022 – Ally Thorson receives Lucas Scholarship Award! Congrats Ally!
The program was named to honor UNC’s Biomedical Engineering Department founding chair, Dr. Carol Lucas, and also to recognize her contributions to the field of biomedical engineering.Â
November 2021 – Aryani Pallerla receives Male Contraceptive Initiative Award! Congrats Aryani!
In 2021, MCI’s Youth Advisory Board (YAB) was able to release an undergraduate research opportunity in an effort to engage young scholars in the field of male contraception. The opportunity was made available with support from the Parsemus … Read more
July 2021 – Isabella Young receives MSD/IAS Prize for Research in HIV Prevention at International AIDS Society Meeting!
Congrats Isabella! Read the Full Story
Summer 2021 – Denali Dahl and Jordan Joiner receive summer internships
Denali will be interning at FHI 360 and Jordan will be interning at Bristol Meyer Squib. Congrats!
New Exciting R01 Grant to Develop a First-in-line Injectable MPT for Prevention of HIV & Unplanned Pregnancy!
The lab of Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, has received a $3.74 million grant over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant will … Read more
Isabella Young Receives a Prestigious NSF Predoctoral Fellowship Award & Honorable Mention for the Ford Foundation!
Congrats Isabella!!!
Clinical & Translational Research at UNC Chapel-Hill
The NIH-funded NC TraCS Institute at UNC is a CTSA hub founded as a service to the research community— guiding investigators and study teams through clinical trials and regulatory approval, all the way to implementation … Read more
Carolina Awarded $2.91 Million to Create New Ultra-long-acting HIV Drug Delivery Implant
HIV clinical trials have shown that the protective efficacy of daily antiretroviral drugs for the prevention of HIV transmission correlates with adherence – whether an uninfected person takes the prescribed medication at proper times. But … Read more
AnelleO: 3D Printing to Create Devices for HIV Prevention, Birth Control and Infertility
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, comprising more than half of the estimated 37.9 million people living with the disease. Moreover, according to United Nations AIDS, some regions of the world, … Read more
Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News: HIV Drug Delivery Made Easier with Long-Acting Implant
Adherence to a strict HIV regimen is an essential part of effective HIV treatment. Medication should be taken every day, at specific times of the day, and with or without certain kinds of food. Making … Read more
Chapel Hill Startup AnelleO, Founded by UNC Professor, Creating Breakthrough in Women’s Health
Rahima Benhabbour has always been an advocate for women’s health issues. As an assistant professor in the UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering and an adjunct professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, … Read more
Innovate Carolina Feature: Personalized Drug Delivery in 3D
On a mission for innovation and translational science, Rahima Benhabbour is using 3D-printing technology and her startup company AnelleO to create a breakthrough in women’s health.
Carolina Stories
Dr. Soumya Rahima Benhabbour is from the North African country of Morocco where, according to UNAIDS, there has been a 42 percent reduction in new HIV infections since 2010. That’s good news to Benhabbour, whose … Read more
Long-acting Injectable Implant Shows Promise for HIV Treatment and Prevention
The long-acting antiretroviral drug formulation, developed by UNC School of Medicine researchers Rahima Benhabbour, PhD and Martina Kovarova, PhD, is injected under the skin and forms into a solid implant that dissolves slowly to release … Read more
UNC to Create the Next Generation, Ultra-Long-Acting Antiretroviral Formulations for HIV Treatment and Prevention
New project aims to provide long-lasting HIV treatment and/or protection from a single injection. Angela Wahl, PhD, Rahima Benhabbour, PhD, and Martina Kovarova, PhD, are collaborating to lead the work, which is funded by a … Read more
3D Printed Intravaginal Rings to Help Protect Women from HIV Infection and Unintended Pregnancy
Rahima Benhabbour is a woman on an amazing mission. Not only is she a professor at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy University department in Chapel Hill, North Carolina she’s also founder of AnnelleO, a 3D … Read more
UNC KickStart Picks Three Faculty Startups for $89K in Funding
Three faculty-led startups at UNC-Chapel Hill are moving closer to commercialization after receiving more than $89,000 in funding from the university’s KickStart Venture Services program.