The Laboratory Research Program conducts applied and translational research in molecular genetics to better understand the ways in which HIV is able to persist in a patient despite anti-HIV drug therapy. Findings are rapidly translated into clinically relevant tools. The laboratory’s research focuses on HIV drug efficacy and resistance, as well as the human and viral factors that influence HIV disease progression.
The BCCfE laboratory has earned an international reputation for exploring the associations between viral/human genetic variation and clinical outcomes. In the spirit of global collaboration, the lab has successfully transferred new methods and useful in-house software to laboratories worldwide. The laboratory stays abreast of the many, rapidly changing developments taking place in technology and instrumentation.
The research team includes individuals with expertise in virology, genomics, chemistry, molecular biology, and bioinformatics. The Program has received peer-reviewed funding for several studies from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, and the Ontario HIV Treatment Network. The laboratory director, Dr. Richard Harrigan, currently holds both the Glen Hillson Professorship in Clinical Virology and the CIHR/GSK Research Chair in HIV/AIDS at the University of British Columbia.
