The Oligonucleotide Ligation Assay (OLA) specifically detects point mutations in the HIV polymerase gene conferring drug resistance. Screening patients for drug-resistant HIV is a necessary step in determining the proper treatment. However, the traditional OLA is complex and lengthy, making it non-ideal for low-resource settings. We are exploiting a novel approach to adapt the OLA into a point-of-care, paper-based format. To enable downstream isothermal ligation and paper-based detection steps, the amplification step of the OLA must be designed to preferably generate many copies of single-stranded HIV DNA (ssDNA). Typically, this can be achieved using a Linear-After-The-Exponential Polymerase Chain Reaction (LATE-PCR), which uses an uneven ratio of forward and reverse primers. Though the LATE-PCR is a useful tool in producing large amounts of ssDNA, it involves a plethora of parameters whose contributions to the reaction output are not well understood. Thus, the LATE-PCR is often optimized via trial and error and may not yield the most desirable outcome. In order to minimize wasted resources from unnecessary trials and achieve a high-efficiency amplification, we aim to understand the behavior, predict the outcome, and develop a platform for LATE-PCR optimization. To accomplish this, we have observed the behavior of LATE-PCR reactions by measuring ssDNA output when altering key reaction parameters such as the number of cycles run, primer concentration ratios, enzyme concentrations, enzyme rates, salt concentrations, and primer sequences. Analysis of these results will allow us to understand the effects of these parameters on the thermodynamics and kinetics of the LATE-PCR. This will form the basis of a computational model which will accurately predict reaction behavior, and provide specific LATE-PCR reactions given user-defined reaction parameters and desired ssDNA output. Future research will focus on expanding the LATE-PCR model to other instrument-free isothermal amplification approaches for a simplified point-of-care OLA.