Joanna Hellmuth, MD, MHS

Dr. Joanna Hellmuth is an International Behavioral Neurology Fellow at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center, where her clinical work focuses on the diagnosis and management of HIV associated neurocognitive disorder (HAND).  She conducts her clinical research with the RV254/SEARCH010 acute HIV cohort in Bangkok, Thailand where she focuses on the central nervous system (CNS) events during acute HIV infection and establishment of HIV reservoirs. Her research has included papers on the neurologic manifestations in acute HIV infection. Dr. Hellmuth’s current project focuses on understanding HIV reservoir formation in the CNS by studying biomarkers of inflammation and injury, as well as neuroclinical, neuropsychological, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy indicators in participants who started combination antiretroviral therapy during acute HIV infection, and later undergo analytic treatment interruption. She also supports a local HIV elders study, looking at Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for participants with HIV related cognitive changes.