Stuart W. Peltz

Biography

Stuart W. Peltz, Ph.D. founded PTC Therapeutics, Inc. in 1998 and has served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors since the company's inception. Under his leadership, PTC has grown from a research organization based in the expertise of RNA processes and control to a publicly traded company on NASDAQ focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of orally-administered, small-molecule treatments for rare disorders and oncology. Dr. Peltz is a recognized scientific leader in RNA biology in the area of post-transcriptional control processes involving mRNA turnover and translation, with more than 30 years of research and over 100 publications in this area. He and his team have shown the important interplay between the different RNA biology events that ultimately control protein production in the cell. He was involved in developing the first biochemical and genetic assays investigating the regulation of mRNA turnover subsequently demonstrating the strong connection between the processes of protein production and mRNA turnover. His work was instrumental in identifying and characterizing components of multiple mRNA decay and translation pathways. These findings have been translated to build novel drug discovery platforms and targets that allow PTC to search for potential new drugs to treat genetic disorders, oncology, and infectious diseases. Dr. Peltz’s development of the nonsense readthrough platform led to the discovery of the first approved drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in the European Union. Prior to founding PTC, Dr. Peltz was a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University. Dr. Peltz has received a number of business and scientific awards. Notably, he was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science in 2010. He received the 2014 Dr. Sol J. Barer Award for Vision Innovation and Leadership and was recognized as PharmaVoice’s 100 Most Inspiring People in 2009. He is a member of the board of directors for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and serves on BIO’s Emerging Companies Section Governing Board. Dr. Peltz received a Ph.D. from the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin.

Research Interest

medical