Dr. Julie Ake, a Colonel in the U.S. Army and infectious diseases specialist, is the Director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP).

COL Ake has been with MHRP since 2010 and previously served as the Principal Deputy for MHRP for five years. She also represents MHRP to the Department of State Office of the Global AIDS coordinator as the WRAIR DoD Deputy Principal for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 

COL Ake is the protocol chair for a number of multi-site international HIV clinical trials and cohort studies and also serves as the co-PI of the MHRP Clinical Trials Unit participating in HVTN, ACTG and CoVPN studies.

Her work in HIV vaccines has included directing the Rockville Vaccine Assessment Clinic and serving as principal investigator and protocol chair for RV262, a DAIDS-sponsored Phase 1b study that evaluated a DNA/MVA prime boost regimen in the U.S. and East Africa. She was involved at the strategic and investigator level in the clinical development of the Janssen Ad26 Mosaic HIV vaccine program. She also works with MHRP’s acute infection cohorts, leading RV398, an ongoing Phase 1 trial administering VRC01 in acute HIV infection in Thailand and East Africa, evaluating its impact on viremia and the reservoir.

COL Ake has worked extensively with treatment and incidence cohorts, spearheading the 12-site African Cohort Study (AFRICOS), a novel cohort study executed in PEPFAR supported clinics in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania that has informed best practices across the entire U.S. Government program. She also initiated MHRP’s RV368 study with a high-risk Nigerian MSM cohort and launched the Joint West Africa Research Group. At the advisory level, she contributes to the P5 partnership and represents the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) on the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council.  COL Ake currently serves as a clinical trial advisor on the vaccine development team of Operation Warp Speed for COVID-19 response.

COL Ake completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford, a master's in Health Policy at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, her medical degree at the University of Washington, and Internal Medicine training at Madigan Army Medical Center, where she also served as Chief of Residents prior to completing her Infectious Diseases Fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.