Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) is a human pathogen infecting 67% of adults worldwide. Some of those infected will remain asymptomatic while others will frequently experience symptoms such as oral or genital lesions. A genome wide association study (GWAS) was conducted and identified a protein, viral protein 22 (VP22), that may be linked to the virulence of strains of HSV-1. My research seeks to identify any functional difference between two variants of VP22.