SFU Chemistry Researchers Develop Faster Path to Antiviral Drug Discovery

Professor Robert Britton and his research group have developed a new method for rapidly building large libraries of nucleoside analogs to treat cancer and viral infections like HIV and hepatitis.

The work was recently published in Science, building on nearly a decade of research, and potentially offers a way to significantly cut down on a process that typically takes months or years. Screened against HIV in collaboration with SFU's Pantophlet Laboratory, three of the newly created compounds have showed activity comparable to approved therapies.

For more information on this work - https://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stories/2026/07/_sfu-chemists_-supercharge-antiviral-drug-discovery.html?utm_source=campus-connections&utm_campaign=july-30-2026-faculty&cmp=1&utm_medium=email

To read the research article in Science - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aed6880