A new multi-institution study led in part by Dr. Robert Schwartz, a virologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, is striving to answer a key biological question: how the hepatitis B virus (HBV) is able to establish infection in liver cells.
The research – led in conjunction with teams lead by chemical biologist Dr. Yael David at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Dr. Viviana Risca at The Rockefeller University - identified a vulnerability that opens the door to new treatments.
The teams successfully disrupted the virus’s ability to infect human liver cells in the laboratory using a compound already in clinical trials against cancer — laying the groundwork for animal model studies and potential drug development based on their insights, according to findings published Feb. 20 in Cell.
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