Chisom Nwoye is a Molecular Biology research Ph.D. student at the University of Utah. Her project in Wes Sundquist’s lab seeks to elucidate the role of HIV-1 viral capsid at different stages of the viral life cycle, including reverse transcription, integration, and viral egress. Her studies will help improve therapeutic designs to combat HIV, and learning from the viral intelligence will help inform the recreation of the other mechanistic approaches, i.e., viral vectors and synthetic capsid constructs to enhance gene delivery/therapies and other cellular manipulations using molecular techniques. Chisom hopes to use her knowledge in viral studies in the long term to solve the problem of HIV latency and develop strategies for permanently eradicating HIV.