McGill, the Jewish General Hospital and the global AIDS community lost one of their leading advocates and researchers on Tuesday, when Dr. Mark A. Wainberg drowned while on vacation in Florida. Wainberg’s research and collaborations on AIDS and HIV, including the initial identification of the 3TC antiretroviral drug, have saved millions of lives around the world.
Wainberg was the head of AIDS research at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital, Director of the McGill University AIDS Centre, and Professor of Medicine and of Microbiology and Immunology.
In 2015, he was appointed to the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in recognition of having “revolutionized our understanding of HIV/AIDS at medical, epidemiological and political levels.”
He was internationally recognized as a leading scientist in the field of HIV/AIDS, and a tireless advocate for the need to improve access to anti-HIV drugs in developing countries. He was well-known for his initial identification of 3TC as an anti-viral drug, in collaboration with BioChem Pharma Inc, in 1989. He made multiple contributions to the field of HIV drug resistance including the identification of many of the mutations in the HIV genome that are responsible for drug resistance.
Dr. David Eidelman, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Vice-Principal (Health Affairs), called Wainberg “an international champion in the fight against HIV/AIDS.”
