The BHP research laboratory has over the years played a critical role in carrying out molecular virology work on HIV and this has built capacity that has enabled work on other pathogens including Hepatitis B virus(HBV), Mycobactrerium tuberculosis (M.Tb), Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and more recently SARS-CoV-2. The overarching aim of the lab is to use genomic data to understand phenotypic and clinical impact of genomic variation. The BHP laboratory contributed to sequencing some of the first HIV-1 subtype C full genome sequences that were instrumental in the early HIV vaccine designs (J Virol. 2002 Jun;76(11):5435-51. doi: 10.1128/jvi.76.11.5435-5451.2002.PMID: 11991972). Work done at the lab has been instrumental in understanding the drug resistance mutations that develop in the setting of HIV-1 subtype C leading to antiretroviral therapy optimization (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17678469/,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17015626/). More recently, through genomic surveillance work, the lab was the first to generate full genome sequences of the SAR-CoV-2 Omicron variant (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04411-y). Future work will leverage on the genomic/molecular virology expertise to determine the link of genomic variability  with phenotype and clinical outcomes associated with the different phathogens.