RESEARCH GOES VIRAL
Zika researcher Tom Hobman examines a culture slide in his lab. The University of Alberta professor’s team has just been awarded a $500,000 grant — one of only three in Canada — to further study the virus.
Tom Hobman is a professor of cell biology at the University of Alberta, as well as a Canada Research Chair. His team was recently awarded a $500,000 grant to continue its research on the Zika virus, which has become a priority for the scientific community since outbreaks in South America and Central America in 2015. Hobman spoke to Postmedia on Thursday about studying the virus and searching for its weaknesses.
Q: How did your team end up on the forefront of Zika research?
A: For the last 12 years, we’ve been working on related viruses, such as West Nile and Dengue, which are close cousins of Zika virus ... It was an easy switch for us.
What really gave us an advantage over anyone else in the country was ... having the in-house expertise and seed funding. This allowed us to do some risky experiments and get going really quickly.
People were working 16 hours a day. I had to tell them to go home and sleep. The amount of knowledge and information we’ve generated over the last year has been astounding ... The fruits of our labour are only now starting to come out ... We have manuscripts being evaluated by journals.
Q: What’s the focus of your current research?
A: (We’re) trying to understand how the virus gets around (cell) defence systems ... as well as trying to understand how virus replication affects development in fetuses ... In doing so, can we find a weakness that can be exploited for antivirals?
What’s interesting about Zika … is how it persists. It can remain in the developing fetus for months. It can remain active in the male reproductive tract for months.
The Holy Grail of antiviral research is to find either a drug or a strategy that can be useful for multiple viruses. Right now, everything we have is specific to one type of virus.
Q: Your team was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research over the next three years. You’re partnering with a Brazilian team at Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro. How will that help your research?
A: It allows us to expand the scope of our project ... We have some facilities they simply don’t have … At the same time, they were at the epicentre of the outbreak. They have epidemiological and clinical knowledge that we don’t … I think it could be the start of a very productive relationship.