[citation needed] While completing her postdoctoral training with David Ho at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Centre, Lewin developed a highly sensitive PCR method to detect unspliced HIV RNA, an early product of viral transcription, in people receiving antiretroviral drugs.

[citation needed] Lewin's lab has shown that triggering the CCR7 receptor on resting CD4 T cells can induce latency,[3] acting through the activation of the cellular cytoskeleton, particularly actin remodelling.

[17][18][19][20] Lewin's clinical research efforts have focussed on potential HIV cure strategies, particularly those using the epigenetic modifiers including histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis).

Following a sabbatical working with Christine Katlama and Brigitte Autran at the Hopital Pitié-Salpêtrière and Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris, Lewin began to focus more on moving potential cure strategies into clinical trials.

[26] A dose-escalation study conducted in Melbourne, Australia and San Francisco, California, USA of the anti-alcohol compound Disulfiram also showed the ability to increase levels of cell-associated unspliced HIV RNA.