On this day in 1986 a team from Roche Laboratories in New Jersey published an article in Science magazine discussing the theoretical basis for the HIV protease molecule, an essential component to the life-cycle of HIV. Without it, HIV virions would remain uninfectious. It was one of the earliest developments in treating the AIDS epidemic, and ushered in the use of computers in AIDS research. Today, computers are used in a myriad of ways by pharmaceutical researchers, including in designing molecules with which to target viruses such as HIV.
