SAN DIEGO — Natasha Martin, a professor and vice chief of Global Public Health at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, received a five-year, $5.6 million Avant-Garde Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2026. The funding supports the development of artificial intelligence tools designed to improve public health responses to HIV, hepatitis C virus, and overdose among people who use drugs in the U.S.

The project, named 'AMPLIFY,' aims to create AI-powered simulations referred to as 'digital twins.' These digital twins are intended to reflect the intervention preferences and decision-making patterns of individuals who use drugs. The research team will train large language models using data from multiple cohorts and a community-based participatory approach.

The digital twins will be integrated into models that simulate HIV and HCV transmission, overdose, and related health outcomes. Researchers will use these models to test prevention and treatment strategies prior to their implementation. Community members will help guide the development, design, testing, and application of the AI models. The team will also develop an interactive dashboard for public health departments.

Martin addressed the prior absence of certain perspectives in public health data. "For too long, local intervention preferences of people who use drugs have been absent in the data that guide responses to HIV, hepatitis C and overdose," she said. "This project will combine community perspectives with cutting-edge AI tools to help health departments better understand local needs, allocate resources more effectively and ultimately save lives."

The National Institute on Drug Abuse is part of the National Institutes of Health. The NIDA Avant-Garde Award is given to one to three researchers each year. "The project is called 'AMPLIFY,' because it is designed to amplify the voices of people who use drugs and ensure their priorities shape the interventions delivered in their communities," Martin said. "Applying AI to predict preferences of people who use drugs could be transformative."

The project builds on collaboration through the Resilient Shield initiative, a Centers for Disease Control-funded center led by Martin and Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, a professor of medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. Project collaborators from the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UC San Diego School of Medicine include Ravi Goyal, Eli Aronoff-Spencer, Steffanie Strathdee, Annick Bórquez, Laramie Smith, Britt Skaathun, and John Ayers. Angela Bazzi from the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science is also a project collaborator. "Beyond this project, this approach could help design new health services, identify barriers to care and tailor interventions for populations whose needs are poorly understood," she said.