On Sept. 13, 2016, Arbutus Biopharma announced that Dr. Michael J. Sofia, Arbutus’ Chief Scientific Officer, had been awarded the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for the development of a revolutionary treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Dr. Sofia leads a world class team of scientists at Arbutus that is focused on developing innovative therapies to improve cure rates in HBV. The two other awardees included Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager (University of Heidelberg) and Charles M. Rice (Rockefeller University) who attempted to coax the hepatitis C virus (HCV) to multiply inside lab-grown host cells.

Hepatitis C virus (or HCV) is one of the things that can bring the liver to our attention. The virus is growing persistently in the livers of an estimated 170 million people worldwide and over 3 million in the US. With time, HCV can destroy the liver’s essential functions, since an infection is often a prelude to cirrhosis or liver cancer.