Hey Knot - yes, am familiar with the HIV - VTU ...it's been around for a long time, right? I think maybe even a decade or so longer than I've been riding (since '97) and before I lost my awesome brother, Peter to AIDS in '95.

I got to ride with the former exec directors of both NW AIDS Foundation and Chicken Soup Brigade - pre-merger to become Lifelong AIDS Alliance and I know that the the AIDS Research Institute is tapped into the same international network, because the director has been up here on a fairly frequent basis, interacting with both UW and Fred Hutch researchers.
It's good to know that they're all working together to beat this, isn't it? Actually, did you know that Dr. Jay Levy of ARI-UCSF is a co-discoverer of HIV in 1983? - with a French research doc, but Dr. Levy is still a leading researcher and a recipient of the Breakthrough Fund seed money that I've helped raise in part; I had the honor of meeting him and he is a ride donor as well this year - cool, eh?!
Good for you in your volunteer efforts...Mimi's son too - many thanks!
Mary