Thisimportant volumeillustrates through a series of authoritative chapters how a greater understanding of the molecular biology of the human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV‐1) can be translated into controlling and treating infection. Although the virus is relatively simple, containing only eight genes, its interaction with the human host is complex. In the majority of cases, infection leads to death from immunodeficiency, wasting, and neurological disease––the symptoms that we call acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Thus, the mortality rate resulting from untreated HIV‐1 infection is greater than that of Ebola or SARS, and there is no recovered immune state.