2020 Physics/Theoretical Colloquium Thursday, February 20th , 2020 3:45 – 4:45 p.m. MSL Auditorium (TA-03, Bldg. 1698) Refreshments at 3:15pm Speaker: Dr. Alan S Perelson Theoretical Biology & Biophysics, T-6 “How Theory Helped Speed the Cure of Hepatitis C – The First Chronic Viral Infection To Be Cured” Abstract: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infects about 170 million individuals worldwide. It is a leading cause of liver cirrhosis and liver cancer and has profoundly affected the lives many people, including some in T-Division such as the late Stirling Colgate (T-2). For much of its history the only therapy available was interferon, which needed to be injected three times a week for a year or more, had profound side effects, and cured about 10% of treated individuals. With improved drug development and use in combination with ribavirin cure rates increased to about 50%. Now using combinations of orally available small molecules HCV cure can be obtained in 95% or more of individuals treated for 8-12 weeks and in one proof of concept study that I will describe with treatment for 3 weeks. My talk will focus on how we developed mathematical models of HCV infection and treatment, and how we used these models and clinical trial data to speed the development of the current therapy.