A researcher who studies an AIDS-like virus in monkeys at the University of California, Davis, has been given an Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award, one of five presented annually, to support her studies on prevention of AIDS in children. A research grant of more than $675,000 will go to Marta Marthas, a UC Davis virologist and one of the nation's leading researchers in studies of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) -- the monkey form of AIDS. Monkeys are considered one of the best animal models for studying human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS in people. Using the rhesus macaque monkey, Marthas studies the transmission of SIV and the development of simian AIDS. Her research focuses on strategies for preventing infection or delaying progression of the disease. She and colleagues at the UC Davis-based California Regional Primate Research Center recently concluded a study of a new anti-viral drug called PMPA, which proved so successful in suppressing SIV in infant and adult monkeys that the drug was rapidly moved into human trials. PMPA studies at UC Davis and the University of Washington were recently named by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as being among the 10 most significant research projects currently funded by the institute. This is the second consecutive year that the Pediatric AIDS Foundation has presented the Glaser awards, named in memory of the organization's founder and AIDS activist, the late Elizabeth Glaser. Glaser is widely remembered for her eloquent speech before the 1992 Democratic National Convention. She had contracted HIV through a 1981 blood transfusion during the birth of her first child. Only after the birth of her second child did she find that the virus had been passed to both children. Her daughter, Ariel, died from AIDS at the age of 7 in 1988, and Elizabeth died of AIDS complications in 1994. Her son, Jake, now age 12, has no symptoms of the illness, and her husband, actor and director Paul Michael Glaser, is not infected with HIV. Elizabeth Glaser and friends co-founded the Pediatric AIDS Foundation to help children and families with HIV, and to provide funding for research on childhood AIDS. Through the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Awards, the foundation intends by the year 2000 to help support a cadre of as many as 25 researchers focused on preventive measures and cures for pediatric AIDS.