Black Biomedical Research Movement seeks growth.

Patrick Allen is one of the country's leading AIDS/HIV researchers, working since 1995 as principal investigator on a $1.2 million NIH-funded study of the HIV capsid structure (the region containing the viral genetic material) and how the structure relates to infectivity of the deadly virus.

University of Colorado at Boulder Research Associate Patrick Allen continued the Chancellor's Community Lecture Series with his presentation "Scientist Turns Activist: The Black Biomedical Research Movement," Jan. 7.

HIV affects proportionately more black people than it does white people.

As a Westchester, N.Y., high school student in the late 1970s, Patrick Allen was an admitted bookworm. He spent many wintry afternoons in the wrestling room doing his homework, waiting for his younger brother to finish practice.

Patrick Allen is as passionate about raising awareness of health in the black community as he is about his research into the mysteries of HIV.

DENVER - Patrick Allen compares his dream of a 'black biomedical research movement" to the women's movement.

When a group of black teens asks you if the AIDS virus was developed to get rid of African Americans and homosexuals, how do you answer?

Ever since his youthful days as a bookworm, Patrick Allen wanted to be a scientist. After landing a prestigious undergraduate internship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute in New York in the summer of 1983, he knew what he wanted to study: HIV.

When Patrick Allen, Ph.D., was awarded a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to define the structure of the AIDS virus, he didn't know that only 0.37 percent of biomedical research funds were given to black scientists.

Scientist Patrick Allen '84 is on a dual mission-to probe the complexities of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and to increase awareness in the black community about the need to become involved in biomedical research.

Dr Patrick Allen, a native of Jamaica-born in the Warika Hilis area off Windward Road, Kingston, holds a Undergraduate Degree from Springfield College B.S. in Biology and a Post-Graduate Degree from the University of California Santa Cruz, Ph.D. in Molecular Biology. Dr Allen is a professor and research associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder and is one of the country's leading AIDS/HIV researchers.

An accomplished Molecular Biologist in the United States, Dr Patrick Allen still remembers his roots in Jamaica's music. On a recent visit, during which which he spoke with Jamaica's most prominent entertainers, Dr. Allen took the time out to chat with RT magazine.