Courtney Kim is one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet. The 26-year-old scientist takes the Aloha Spirit to new intellectual heights with her work in the Hawai‘i Center for AIDS. (HCA) She is based out of the Clint Spencer Clinic, located in Lē‘ahi Hospital, which services HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) and AIDS (Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome) patients in Hawai‘i, with research collaborations all over the U.S., Vietnam, and Thailand.

You can see her genuine kindness when she gazes at a picture of a friend that hangs above her desk in her laboratory office. Kim made life-long friendships with many of her patients while working at the HCA clinic. Her buddy in the aforementioned photo passed away from AIDS two years ago. Courtney slowly and painfully watched him die from the virus, but still smiles when she casually mentions him. It’s unethical for her to reveal any of his identifying information, however when she stares at his picture it’s apparent that he was a good friend that is dearly missed.

It’s not just the warm fuzzies that motivates Courtney to do her work. She also feeds off of a deep passion for science. On a daily basis she’s conducting experiments dedicated to her doctoral thesis, working with patients, researching and writing her findings for publication. In between all of that she teaches/trains undergrad students and is constantly reading medical journals to stay up on the latest developments in the scientific community.

At a first glance, it’s hard to see Kim as an up and coming scientist on the cutting edge of medicine because she looks more like an undergraduate student in her Gap (Product) Red t-shirt, blue jeans and brown slippers. That’s probably why she still gets scornful looks from the Lē‘ahi Hospital security guard when Kim parks her Toyota Tacoma in the front parking lot. The toy cop probably thinks she’s a Kapiolani Community College student trying to find free parking. If the guard only knew how well educated Courtney is he’d stop mean mugging.

Kim graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 2000 and from the University of Southern California in 2004. She left USC with two Bachelor of Science Degrees in Psychology and Biological Science, and two minors in Business Biotech and Neuroscience. At the end of 2009, she’ll graduate from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with a PhD in Cellular Molecular Biology. With further training in the field and more networking, Kim hopes to eventually work with physicians to open up a research clinic on a neighbor island. Contrast got a tour of Courtney’s lab, increased our awareness of the AIDS epidemic and tried not to ask too many dumb questions.




What is the Clint Spencer Clinic and Hawai‘i Center for AIDS all about?
We are a grant-funded clinic so we work really hard to provide the drugs and healthcare that we can give our patients for free. The physicians, scientists, and staff here work really, really hard. Our clinic is nice because we have our clinic rooms right next to the lab. When the patients get checked, get their drugs and if they’re donating a sample that day we can process it right next door.

What is a drug cocktail when referring to AIDS patients?
HIV patients don’t just get one drug, they get a cocktail of drugs and it’s called Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, also known as HAART. The reason they’re given a cocktail is because they target multiple mechanisms within the HIV replication pathway and reduce the virus that way. Clinicians determine the cocktail based off of the patient’s history and viral load. Patients come to us for healthcare, of course, but they also come to help fight this disease by contributing to scientific research. The physicians try really hard to determine the best cocktail based on that patient’s previous conditions […] but you don’t know because later the patient may develop complications from something else and then the physicians try to switch them to another drug immediately.

That’s a heavy trial and error process. How has this global epidemic changed from the drugs?
HIV and AIDS have become more of a chronic condition because we have very effective drugs. The drugs do a very good job of reducing patients’ viral results, but there are a lot of complications, like with any medication. So, that’s what our clinic focuses on– the complications. We try to alleviate any kind of conditions that they might have brought on by the drugs or having HIV in general. We have different clinical trials going on right now with different drug regimes. Out in the scientific community right now they’re still trying to build a better drug, and in fact, they’re trying to build a vaccine.

We know that you’re job isn’t just in lab and libraries. Where have you traveled for work?
I’ve been really fortunate to go several places for conferences. The first year I started I went to a lipodystrophy conference in San Francisco, Calif. and that was fun. Then I went to a NIH (National Institutes of Health) Conference and was fortunate to give a talk [in] Maryland. Then I went to Mexico City to give a talk at the International AIDS Conference. It’s really exciting to go to conferences, learn a wealth of information, present your work, and have people interested who want to set up collaborations with our clinic in the future.

Do people attending the conferences trip out when they find out you’re from Hawai‘i?
I meet some people who are very interested in our clinic asking if our patients present different clinical profiles than what is in the literature, as well as the different projects that we’re studying. Unfortunately, you meet some people who can’t believe that Hawai‘i even has an AIDS clinic and it’s not all resorts and sunshine. Yes, we have that, we have a lot of that, but we also have extremely bright and talented people doing their part to help people of the Pacific and provide them with the best resources available. We’re trying to make a name for ourselves, and that they know we’re not just some little island. We’re doing some really great research here!

What can the everyday person do to advance your cause?
Awareness for one, especially about HIV, I think people are becoming more aware, but people still have a lot of misconceptions about the disease. We have a non-profit organization called the Life Foundation that strives to improve the spread of HIV/AIDS by implementing education programs and fundraisers for quality medical care. Our clinic has been a part of this foundation for many years now and the more people who join and sponsor, the more help they can give for their cause. Once a year, they organize the Honolulu AIDS Walk through Kapi‘olani Park, where they ask for donations and participants to walk or run for support in the fight against AIDS. On a separate note, our clinic is always looking for volunteers to participate in our clinical trials, whether he/she is HIV negative or positive. With more volunteers, we can draw stronger conclusions, and the closer we become to understanding more about HIV. Perhaps, the greatest contribution the everyday person can give is awareness. There’s no such thing as getting HIV from touching a doorknob.