Nov 17
Carleton Connects: Wes Sundquist '81 on how to stop a pandemic
The research lab of Wes Sundquist ’81 made discoveries that helped Gilead Sciences create lenacapavir, a drug that protects individuals at risk from HIV infection and that offers the potential to alter the course of the ongoing HIV pandemic. Wes will summarize his lab’s work, current threats to research funding, and the challenges in translating new discoveries into products that drive economic growth and help people to live better lives.
The webinar begins at 11:00 a.m. Central on Monday, November 17. Register online.
Wes Sundquist ’81 leads a research lab at the University of Utah Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, where he is the Samuels Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biochemistry. After receiving his BA in chemistry from Carleton and a PhD in chemistry from MIT, he did postdoctoral research with Sir Aaron Klug at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. His lab studies HIV assembly and replication. They determined the architecture and functions of the HIV capsid (the conical assembly at the center of the virus) and identified it as an attractive drug target. Gilead Sciences built on that work to create the drug lenacapavir, which potently prevents HIV transmission for six months after a single dose. Sundquist has received a number of honors and awards, including the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for Biochemistry (Columbia University), the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (Harvard University), the World Laureate Prize for Life Sciences (World Laureate Association), and the Mani L. Bhaumik 2025 Breakthrough of the Year Award (Science Magazine). He was included in the 2025 TIME100 list of most influential people and has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences. Wes and his wife Nola have two adult children, Chris ’16 and Emily Nola.
Our webinars are recorded. Visit the Carleton Connects archive to view more than a decade's worth of earlier shows.
from Carleton Connects