Cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus type 1. a company that wants to develop antiviral drugs would ask a research immunologist to study —

The company that wants to develop antiviral drugs would ask a research immunologist to study the mechanism used by the virus to infect cells. Oral herpes is a viral infection mainly of the mouth area and lips caused by specific type of the herpes simplex virus. It is also termed as the HSV-1, type 1 herpes simplex virus, or herpes labialis. Herpes simplex virus entry or penetration into cells may be a highly complex process and the mechanism of entry may demonstrate unique cell-types specificities. 

Proteins are the workhorses of the cell, controlling virtually every reaction within as well as providing structure and serving as signals to other cells. proteins are long chains of  amino acids  , and the exact sequence of the amino acids determines the final structure and function of the protein. instructions for that sequence are encoded in  genes  . to make a particular protein, a messenger ribonucleic acid (mrna) copy is made from the gene (in the process called  transcription  ), and the mrna is transported to the  ribosome  . protein synthesis, also called  translation  , begins when the two ribosomal subunits link onto the mrna. this step, called initiation, is followed by elongation, in which successive amino acids are added to the growing chain, brought in by transfer rnas (trnas). in this step, the ribosome reads the  nucleotides  of mrna three by three, in units called  codons  , and matches each to three nucleotides on the trna, called the anticodon. finally, during termination, the ribosome unbinds from the mrna, and the  amino acid  chain goes on to be processed and folded to make the final, functional protein