Dr. Wainberg’s laboratory works mostly on the topic of HIV drug resistance. He and his team study the mechanisms whereby HIV can mutate so as to become resistant to drugs in each of several classes that include reverse transcriptase inhibitors, protease inhibitors and integrase inhibitors.
In addition, the laboratory has been at the forefront of research showing that viruses of different subtypes that derive from different geographic regions of the world can develop different types of drug resistance mutational patterns. In some cases, this may determine whether or not an antiviral drug may be more or less suitable for use in different geographic areas, although the most important factor in determining whether drug resistance will occur is adherence to an antiretroviral drug regimen.