Dr. Landovitz completed his training at Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. He served as Medical Co-Director of the Vietnam-CDC-Harvard Medical School-AIDS-Partnership (VCHAP), helping to train Vietnamese physicians in HIV care and treatment. Dr. Landovitz relocated to Los Angeles in 2006, and is currently Associate Professor of Medicine at the UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research & Education. He has led combination prevention intervention studies and projects using Post-exposure (PEP) and Pre-exposure (PrEP) strategies for MSM, as well as being part of leadership groups of the DAIDS-funded AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG), HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) and the Adolescent Trials Network (ATN). He is the principal investigator of a multisite PrEP demonstration project in Los Angeles County, and the study chair of a Phase 3 study of long-acting injectable PrEP. His research agenda focuses on the optimization of the use of antiretroviral medications for both HIV treatment and HIV prevention. He was awarded the John Carey Young Investigator Award by the ACTG in 2010.

1. How did you first get involved with the HPTN?
I have worked with the ACTG since 1999, and had a great appreciation for the science that the DAIDS networks do – and the power of the resources that the networks bring to the arena. My research interests have always been in how to optimize the use of HIV antiretrovirals for both treatment and prevention, and when HPTN 069/ACTG A5305 was being developed, I was lucky enough to be invited to be a part of that study team by the protocol chair, Dr. Trip Gulick. It was through that study that I had the opportunity to meet and work with HPTN leadership, which led to opportunities for even more involvement in other very exciting HPTN science. It has been the perfect “transition” for me – having background in therapeutics network science to transition to prevention network science, which is my real passion. 

2. What do you find most challenging about the work you do in support of the HPTN?
What is challenging in the best way is that the questions posed to prevention science today are very difficult and nuanced questions that include complicated questions in clinical and behavioral science, study design, research ethics, community engagement, and social justice – but luckily the networks attract some of the most insightful, thoughtful, and collaborative scientists considering these issues. Therefore, trying to come up with solutions becomes a collaborative team approach. 

3. What do you think will change about HIV prevention over the next five years?
I hope the science will support the efficacy of a broader array of choices for HIV prevention for a wide range of at-risk populations, and we will find the political and financial will to implement and scale them up.

4. What do you wish other people knew about your work?
Although working on HPTN 077 and HPTN 083 is sometimes dizzying, working with amazingly committed and wonderful teams makes me incredibly grateful I get to be a part of this work. 

5. What might (someone) be surprised to know about you?
I have an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater. Some people quote Monty Python movies incessantly? You can always count on me for an obscure Broadway show tune reference. 

6. What do you do when you aren't working?
If you listen to my family, I am never not working. But seriously, when I am not working, I teach indoor cycling classes, and I’m at the theater.