Those were sort of the words of my General Biology professor as she put up an image of one molecule of HIV protease. It was red in this model, and poetically or not, several parts of it were flat and formed long ribbons. At least, that’s what I thought in 1995. The lecture is etched in my brain.

“That right there is HIV protease, a protein that HIV needs to reproduce. So what’s in the works, and what’s really exciting, is a drug that will inhibit HIV protease. Of course, all of our cells have proteases in them, and the trick will be finding a candidate that doesn’t interact with human cells, because that is what leads to side effects.”

I felt like I was being let in on a secret. To think we could go from that to PrEP in 30 years is pretty amazing.