Dr. Sofia was responsible for the discovery and early development of sofosbuvir, which became the backbone of many hepatitis C curative therapies.

Award-winning scientist Michael J. Sofia, PhD, who discovered the first reliably effective treatment for hepatitis C, has joined the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute as a distinguished professor and principal investigator.

Dr. Sofia co-founded Arbutus BioPharma Inc. and was its chief scientific officer for 12 years until his recent retirement. He is internationally recognized for his work on the discovery and development of drugs to treat and cure viral diseases including hepatitis C and hepatitis B. Dr. Sofia received the prestigious Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2016 for his work on hepatitis C.

During his career Dr. Sofia has introduced numerous drugs into clinical development and is responsible for the discovery and early development of sofosbuvir, which became the backbone of many hepatitis C curative therapies including Sovaldi, Harvoni, Epclusa and Vosevi. He has published extensively in the area of drug discovery and development.

“I am excited to be joining the Blumberg Institute and continue my work to help deliver life-saving therapies to patients who desperately need them,” Dr. Sofia said. “I look forward to working with the talented and dedicated staff at the institute as we translate scientific breakthroughs into real world benefits for patients.”

Louis P. Kassa III, MPA, CEO of the Blumberg Institute, Hepatitis B Foundation and Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC), said that Dr. Sofia has had a long-time association with the Blumberg Institute and is very highly regarded by its faculty and staff.

“Adding a scientist of Dr. Sofia’s stature will contribute significantly to the growing global reputation of the Blumberg Institute,” Kassa said. “Mike also will be an extremely valuable advisor to our faculty members and wonderful mentor for our younger scientists, so we are very pleased that he’s agreed to join us.”

Dr. Sofia held research and research management positions at Gilead Sciences, Pharmasset, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Transcell Technologies and Eli Lilly. He earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Cornell University and a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University and currently is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

In 2017, Dr. Sofia was inducted into the American Chemical Society Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has received numerous awards for his work on hepatitis C including the 2015 Economist Innovation Award, the 2015 ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award, 2016 IUPAC-Richter Prize, the 2016 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the 2017 Gertrude Elion Award from the International Society for Antiviral Research, the 2018 IS3NA John Montgomery Award and the 2020 Cameron Prize for Therapeutics from the University of Edinburgh.

About the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute: An independent, nonprofit research organization, the Blumberg Institute was launched in 2003 by the Hepatitis B Foundation to advance its research mission. Today, the Institute is a leading center for translational research in hepatitis B, liver cancer and related diseases. Our scientists primarily focus on understanding the pathobiology of hepatitis B virus and related diseases, developing diagnostics for early detection of liver cancer and therapeutics for the cure of chronic hepatitis B. Their research extends to investigating other RNA viruses causing hepatitis and hemorrhagic fever and developing antiviral drugs and immune modulators to treat these viral diseases. The Institute’s faculty members have expertise in virology, immunology, cancer biology, chemistry and drug development. The Blumberg Institute’s labs and offices are in the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center (PABC), which it manages, in Doylestown, Pa. The Institute also runs a state-of-the-art incubator in Philadelphia, B+labs at Cira Centre, which is a partnership with Brandywine Realty Trust. Visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn and X, @BlumbergInstit1.