
Alexander Ploss
Alexander Ploss, associate professor of molecular biology and president of Acurasset Therapeutics, won first place in the 2021 Company and Pitch Presentation Competition held by BioNJ in conjunction with their 11th annual BioPartnering Conference on May 18-19.
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infects at least 257 million individuals worldwide, often leading to liver disease and/or cancer. Current treatments for HBV are not curative. To address this need, Acurasset Therapeutics, a start-up spun out of Dr. Ploss’s lab at Princeton University, is developing a novel approach to cure HBV based on small molecule therapeutics. Ploss and his group have established a short list of candidate molecules which inhibit factors necessary for HBV replication. If successful, this drug would rid cells of the virus within a matter of weeks to months, resulting in a single-treatment cure to HBV.
Read more at the BioNJ press release.