Marta Alenquer is a virologist with longstanding expertise in herpesviruses, influenza A virus and, more recently, in SARS-CoV-2. Her scientific career has been dedicated to understanding virus-host interactions at both the cellular and organismal levels, identifying host factors and pathways essential for viral replication, as well as viral proteins and virulence factors that impact viral disease in animal models of infection. Her achievements in the field include: 1) the paradigm-changing discovery that influenza A virus creates biomolecular condensates with liquid properties dedicated to the assembly of the viral genome (Alenquer et al., 2019, Nat. comms, 10:1629; Etibor et al., 2023, eLife.85182); 2) the development of an alternative method to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection in children using saliva and bypassing RNA extraction (Alenquer et al., 2022, Plos one 17 (6), e0268388); 3)  the development of a pseudovirus-based neutralization assay to study the ability of evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants to escape pre-existing immunity developed upon natural infection or vaccination (Alenquer et al., 2021, PLoS pathogens 17 (8), e1009772).