Biochemistry
Area of Doctoral Study: Biochemistry
Undergraduate Institute: Jackson State University
Research Advisor: Michael F. Summers, Ph.D.
Description of Research
Nearly 40 million people are infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which has the ability to mutate at high frequency causing therapeutic drug resistance. For this reason new therapeutic targets are necessary to combat HIV. One area of the retroviral replication cycle that that does not have any therapeutic drugs is that of genomic recognition. My research focuses on understanding the structure and mechanism for HIV-1 genomic packaging and recognition.