Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1st, we asked several BC-CfE researchers about their work and how it relates to this year’s World AIDS Day theme of ‘End Inequalities. End AIDS. End Pandemics’. Dr. Kate Salters, a BC-CfE research scientist, leads the Viral Hepatitis Research Program.

Dr. Peter Cheung, a staff scientist in the BC-CfE laboratory, recently published a paper as a co-first author on the topic of a novel antiviral compound discovery.Dr. Cheung worked with researchers at the University of BC and the University of Toronto to characterize chemical compounds that inhibit HIV in novel ways compared to antiretroviral agents currently used. Specifically, the molecules discussed in the paper “2-Trifluoromethylthiazole-5-carboxamides: Analogues of a Stilbene-Based Anti-HIV Agent that Impact HIV mRNA Processing” impact the processing and production of mRNA “messages” that instruct a cell to make proteins.