PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has been awarded a $16-million federal grant to learn more about the virus that causes AIDS and help develop new drugs to fight the disease.

The money establishes the Pittsburgh Center for HIV Protein Interactions, one of three centers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Angela Gronenborn, chairwoman of the university’s department of structural biology, will serve as the center’s director.

The other two centers are led by Dr. Alan Frankel at the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr. Wesley Sundquist at the University of Utah.

The Pittsburgh center will work to better understand what happens when HIV proteins interact with cellular components of host cells so researchers can learn more about how to stop the virus, Gronenborn said.