Alejandro Arenas-Pinto, Principal Clinical Research Fellow

Alejandro is a Venezuelan physician trained in infectious diseases and Tropical Medicine with over 20 years of experience in clinical research. At the UCL Centre for Clinical Research in Infection and Sexual Health (Institute for Global Health) he works on academic and commercial treatment clinical trials on HIV, viral hepatitis, and other infections. He joined MRC-CTU in 2008 where he has worked on treatment and prevention clinical trials on HIV and COVID-19 at national and international levels.

He is heavily involved in under and postgraduate teaching at UCL, including the MSc courses in Clinical Trials and Women’s Health. He also teaches in MSc programmes at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and some international institutions, including the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in India.

Selected publications

Gabrielaite M, Bennedbæk M, Zucco AG, Ekenberg C, Murray DD, Kan VL, Touloumi G, Vandekerckhove L, Turner D, Neaton J, Lane HC, Safo S, Arenas-Pinto A, Polizzotto MN, Günthard HF, Lundgren JD, Marvig RM, for the INSIGHT START trial group. Human immunotypes impose selection on viral genotypes through viral epitope specificity. J Infect Dis 2021 2021; 224(12):2053-2063.  doi:10.1093/infdis/jiab253

Arenas-Pinto, A., Grund, B., Sharma, S., Martinez, E., Cummins, N., Fox, J., Klingman KL, Sedlacek D, Collins S, Flynn PM, Chasanov WM, Kedem E, Katlama C, Sierra-Madero J, Afonso C, Brouwers P, Cooper DA; INSIGHT START study group. Risk of Suicidal Behavior With Use of Efavirenz: Results from the Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment Trial. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2018; 67(3):420-429. doi:1093/cid/ciy051

Arenas-Pinto A, Stohr W, Jager R, Haddow L, Fisher M, Clarke A, Johnson M, Chen F, Winston A, Godi C, Thust S, Trombin R, Cairns J, Solanky BS,  Golay X, Paton NI for the PIVOT Neurocognitive sub-study Team. Neurocognitive function and neuroimaging markers in virologically suppressed HIV-positive patients randomised to ritonavir-boosted protease inhibitor monotherapy or standard combination ART: a cross-sectional sub-study from the PIVOT Trial. Clin Infect Dis 2016; 63(2): 257-64. doi:10.1093/cid/ciw279

INSIGHT START Study Group, Lundgren JD, Babiker AG, Gordin F, Emery S, Grund B, Sharma S, Avihingsanon A, Cooper DA, Fätkenheuer G, Llibre JM, Molina JM, Munderi P, Schechter M, Wood R, Klingman KL, Collins S, Lane HC, Phillips AN, Neaton JD. Initiation of Antiretroviral Therapy in Early Asymptomatic HIV Infection. N Engl J Med. 2015 Aug 27;373(9):795-807. doi:1056/NEJMoa1506816

Paton NI, Stöhr W, Arenas-Pinto A, Fisher M, Williams I, Johnson M, Orkin C, Chen F, Lee V, Winston A, Gompels M, Fox J, Scott K, Dunn DT for the Protease Inhibitor monotherapy Versus Ongoing Triple therapy (PIVOT) Trial Team. Randomised controlled trial of a protease inhibitor monotherapy strategy for the long-term management of HIV infection. Lancet HIV 2015 Oct; 2(10):e417-26. doi:1016/S2352-3018(15)00176-9

Research Interests

• HIV
• Other Conditions
• Methodology

Research Areas

• HIV infection and associated complications.
• Anti-retroviral associated adverse effects.
• Emergent and re-emergent infections.
• Safety event reporting in randomised controlled trials.
• Translational and reverse-translational medicine.