--- description: Find out why Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist is one of the 100 most influential people of 2025. title: Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecccdf8d1718f84a/6998c5d7a97fc07d06a74449/time100-2025-tomas-cihlar-wesley-sundquist.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2025 # Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist by [Alice Park](/author/alice-park/) ## Alice Park Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent  Photo-illustration by TIME; Cihlar: Gilead Sciences, Inc.; Sundquist: University of Utah Today, antiviral medications can turn HIV, a once fatal infection, into a chronic condition. Nonetheless, the cocktail of pills remains out of reach for many—and lapses in the daily regimen make them less effective. Wesley Sundquist, a biochemist at University of Utah, and Tomas Cihlar, a virologist at [Gilead](https://www.gilead.com/stories/discovering-a-breakthrough-gilead-long-standing-commitment-to-helping-change-the-course-of-hiv "undefined"), a biopharmaceutical company, have labored for more than a dozen years to turn one antiviral treatment, lenacapavir, into a twice-a-year therapy to prevent HIV infection in those at high risk. Sundquist laid the groundwork in studying one of HIV’s proteins, the capsid, which creates a protective shell around the virus’ genome; Cihlar visited his labs and was impressed enough to take his discoveries to Gilead. There, his team found ways to extend the effect of the drug over six months, meaning infected patients only receive two injections a year to treat HIV. Researchers are now studying lenacapavir in people who are not HIV positive but are at high risk of exposure. If approved, it would be the first twice-a-year injected drug to prevent HIV. Early results show great promise. _Park is a TIME senior correspondent_ Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist Is on the 2025 TIME100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273749/tomas-cihlar-and-wesley-sundquist/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273749/tomas-cihlar-and-wesley-sundquist/"},"headline":"Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist Are on the 2025 TIME100","datePublished":"2025-04-16T10:30:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:46:33.063Z","description":"Find out why Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist are one of the 100 most influential people of 2025.","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273749/tomas-cihlar-and-wesley-sundquist/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecccdf8d1718f84a/6998c5d7a97fc07d06a74449/time100-2025-tomas-cihlar-wesley-sundquist.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"creator":"Alice Park","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltecccdf8d1718f84a/6998c5d7a97fc07d06a74449/time100-2025-tomas-cihlar-wesley-sundquist.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273749/tomas-cihlar-and-wesley-sundquist/","name":"Tomas Cihlar and Wesley Sundquist Are on the 2025 TIME100"}}]}] ```