The National Institutes of Health awarded Temple neurologist Bassel Sawaya two research grants totaling $2.96 million to study the role of microRNAs in the development of neurocognitive disorders associated with HIV. "The major focus of my lab is to understand how HIV directly or indirectly causes neuronal degeneration," Sawaya said. "An HIV patient, when they suddenly begin to lose the neurons in their brain, can develop neurocognitive disorders such as dementia. We are interested in identifying those mechanisms that could lead to such events."