Using a new type of genetic screen, researchers at Harvard Medical School have identified 273 proteins that the AIDS virus needs to survive in human cells, opening up new potential targets for drugs, The New York Times writes. Their work, published online on by Science magazine, used RNA interference to screen thousands of protein-making genes; previously, scientists had identified only 36 human proteins that the virus uses to break into cells, hijack their machinery and start reproducing.

“This is just terrific work,” Robert C. Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and a co-discoverer of the virus, tells the paper. “I think it’s destined to be one of the top papers in this field for the decade.”

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the government’s top AIDS expert, called the Harvard team’s work “elegant science,” but added a caution. “It remains to be seen if any of these proteins they identified are useful clinically,” Fauci tells the Times. “This is hypothesis-generating, not hypothesis-solving. It creates a lot of work — someone has to go down each of these pathways.”

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