Login | Register

AHFMR News

AHFMR attracts medical virologist to Alberta


Dr. George Zahariadis

(Edmonton, AB) Monday, December 19, 2005... Around ninety percent of the population is infected with some type of herpes virus - everything from the chickenpox virus to the Epstein Barr virus, known as the 'kissing disease'. For the most part, these viruses don't pose a life-threatening problem to healthy people. However, these viruses can often be fatal to a person who is receiving cancer treatment or has undergone any type of transplantation. Potent immune system suppressing medication, taken by these types of patients, interferes with the body's control over viruses, often resulting in death. Dr. George Zahariadis has come to the University of Alberta to examine and better understand the human-herpes relationship in an effort to prevent these deaths.

Heritage researcher Dr. George Zahariadis has been recently recruited to Alberta. He is a physician-researcher - dividing his time between clinical work and conducting hands-on research in the lab. Dr. Zahariadis comes to Alberta after completing sub-specialty training in infectious diseases at the University of Washington followed by a translational virology research fellowship at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle.


** A Photo and Interview Opportunity with a Researcher in a Lab will be Available **


    What: Media opportunity to interview Dr. George Zahariadis
    When: Monday, December 19, 2005
    Time: 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM (Call for an interview time) *
    Where: Heritage Medical Research Building - Lab 632 (6th Floor)
    University of Alberta - (87th Ave. and 113 St.)

* Dwayne Brunner, AHFMR Communications, (780) 966-1518

Backgrounder

  • Dr. George Zahariadis is an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Clinical Fellow. There are approximately 20 Clinical Fellows supported by AHFMR both locally in Alberta and around the world.

  • Dr. Zahariadis researches viruses - specifically the herpes simplex virus (HSV) and the mechanisms that allow it to evade a body's own immune system.

  • There are 8 known Herpes Viruses that infect humans:

    • HHV-1 or HSV-1: herpes simplex virus type 1 (oral herpes)
    • HHV-2 or HSV-2: herpes simplex virus type 2 (genital herpes)
    • HHV-3 or VZV: varicella-zoster virus (chickenpox / shingles)
    • HHV-4 or EBV: Epstein-Barr virus (mononucleosis)
    • HHV-5 or CMV: Cytomegalovirus (retinitis)
    • HHV-6: causes Roseola (a childhood rash)
    • HHV-7: clinical disease not yet characterized
    • HHV-8 or KSV: Kaposi's Sarcoma virus

  • Dr. Zahariadis is a graduate of the University of Toronto Medical School where he also completed specialty training in internal medicine. He subsequently went to the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Centre where he completed further training in infectious diseases, virology, and basic research. He has joined ProvLab as a virologist at the Edmonton site while also training with Professor James Smiley, studying the immunomodulatory effects of herpes simplex virus infections.

  • Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR) currently provides funding for over 600 researchers and researchers in training at the Province's three main universities. The foundation supports a community of researchers who generate knowledge that improves the health and quality of life of Albertans and people throughout the world. AHFMR's commitment is to fund health research based on international standards of excellence and carried out by new and established investigators and researchers in training. Total AHFMR funding over 25 years is in excess of $800 million. For more information, visit www.ahfmr.ab.ca.