Michael J. Sofia is a chemist whose main research focus is

hepatitis C virus The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small (55–65 nm in size), enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family '' Flaviviridae''. The hepatitis C virus is the cause of hepatitis C and some cancers such as liver cancer (hepatoc ...

and

hepatitis B virus ''Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) is a partially double-stranded DNA virus, a species of the genus '' Orthohepadnavirus'' and a member of the '' Hepadnaviridae'' family of viruses. This virus causes the disease hepatitis B. Disease Despite there b ...

drug discovery. He was a co-recipient of the

Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is one of four annual awards presented by the Lasker Foundation. The Lasker-DeBakey award is given to honor outstanding work for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of diseas ...

for his work on hepatitis C in 2016 and of the Gertrude B. Elion Memorial Award from the

International Society for Antiviral Research The International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR) is a scientific society that focuses on the discovery and clinical application of antiviral agents. It was founded in 1987 to encourage the exchange of information and collaborative researc ...

in 2017.

Career

Sofia earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

, and Ph.D. in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

from the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...

. He did a postdoctoral fellow at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, followed by work as a research scientist at biotech companies including the Squibb Institute for Medical Research. Eli Lilly and Company, and

Bristol-Myers Squibb The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the lar ...

. He was Senior Vice President of Chemistry at

Pharmasset Pharmasset Inc. was a pharmaceutical company based in Princeton, New Jersey in the United States. The company develops antiviral drugs for HIV (including racivir), hepatitis B (including clevudine, marketed as Levovir), and hepatitis C. In N ...

from 2005 to 2012 when Pharmasset was acquired by

Gilead Gilead or Gilad (; he, גִּלְעָד ''Gīləʿāḏ'', ar, جلعاد, Ǧalʻād, Jalaad) is the ancient, historic, biblical name of the mountainous northern part of the region of Transjordan.''Easton's Bible Dictionary'Galeed''/ref> ...

, after which he became a senior advisor. Michael J. Sofia is currently the Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of

Arbutus Biopharma Arbutus Biopharma Corporation is a publicly traded Canadian ( NASDAQ: ABUS) biopharmaceutical company with an expertise in liposomal drug delivery and RNA interference, and is developing drugs for hepatitis B infection. It is headquartered in V ...

, formerly as OnCore Biopharma prior to its 2015 merger with Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.

Awards

Michael J. Sofia was awarded the 2016

for his research on hepatitis C, along with

Charles M. Rice Charles Moen Rice (born August 25, 1952) is an American virologist and Nobel Prize laureate whose main area of research is the Hepatitis C virus. He is a professor of virology at the Rockefeller University in New York City and an adjunct profess ...

and Ralf F. W. Bartenschlager. He was also awarded the 2016 IUPAC-Richter Prize in Medicinal Chemistry and the Economist's 2015 Innovation Award in the Bioscience category for the development of sofosbuvir, which was named after Sofia for his contributions to the discovery and development of the drug. He received the Gertrude B. Elion Memorial Award of the

(2017).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sofia, Michael Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Recipients of the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award 21st-century American chemists Cornell University alumni