The University of California San Francisco has established an endowment named in honor of Marcus Conant, MD, for HIV dermatology and LGBTQ health research.
Dr. Conant is the chief medical officer at Rockville, Md.-based American Gene Technologies and a clinical professor emeritus of dermatology at UCSF.
The endowment provides mentorship and support to researchers and increases funds for research and recruitment of residents and fellows.
Dr. Conant was one of the first physicians to diagnose HIV in San Francisco, and he took the lead in forming the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. He now works as a gene therapy researcher.
"We're proud to be continuing the work that Dr. Conant was a part of starting so many years ago and to have his guidance in our efforts to develop new cutting-edge gene therapies for HIV," Jeff Galvin, CEO of American Gene Technologies, said in a Nov. 1 press release. "This scholarship is a fitting legacy to his life-long commitment to fighting HIV and AIDS, and ensures that there will be much more progress to come."