Dr. North is a research biochemist interested in antiviral drugs and viral drug resistance. His research is aimed at understanding mechanisms by which lentiviruses become resistant to antiviral drugs and to utilize this information to develop strategies for chemotherapy of AIDS. He has developed model systems using FIV, the feline homologue of HIV-1, and SIV for studies of resistance to AIDS chemotherapy. The in vitro systems his group has developed permit selection and characterization of mutants more rapidly and over a broader range of selection conditions than has been possible with HIV systems. Furthermore, his laboratory has developed a model for highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in rhesus macaques infected with HIV/SIV chimeras (SHIVs). This model permits evaluation of viral mutations and the role of host factors in viral evasion of AIDS therapy. In addition, Dr. North is developing new strategies to combat viral drug-resistance using combinatorial chemistry to identify entry inhibitors of HIV and SIV. Please contact Dr. North at twnorth@ucdavis.edu for further information.