Salk Professor Katherine Jones, first author Muyu Xu and colleagues discovered a small molecule called JIB-04 that destroys the HIV protein called Tat, responsible for revving up the virus. The molecule, while itself too toxic to serve as a therapy for HIV, reveals enzymes in host cells that can potentially target Tat and halt this runaway replication process. The work was published in PLOS Pathogens on May 23, 2018.