Khaperskyy lab

We study virus-host interactions with a focus on intrinsic cell defense mechanisms and their subversion by influenza viruses and coronaviruses. Another area of interest in the lab is the biology of stress granules – cytoplasmic foci of messenger RNA-protein complexes that form in response to various types of stress.

News and announcements:

19 December 2022
Stacia’s MSc thesis work is out in PLoS Pathogens: Nsp1 proteins of human coronaviruses HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV2 inhibit stress granule formation. What a nice way to finish the year! Another paper produced in collaboration with the Corcoran Lab (University of Calgary). In this work we show that viral host shutoff factors are important contributors to stress granule suppression in Coronavirus infected cells, the link that was previously demonstrated for influenza A virus host shutoff.

6 October 2022
Another MSc student graduates from our lab today! Eileigh Kadijk defends her MSc thesis “Functional interplay of influenza A virus NS1 and PA-X proteins mediates host shutoff“. Congratulations Eileigh!

19 September 2022
Thiopurines inhibit coronavirus Spike protein processing and incorporation into progeny virions is out in PLoS Pathogens! Exciting new paper and a follow up on our previous study on the effects of thiopurines on viral glycoprotein production. This collaborative effort was led by Drs. Eric Pringle and Brett Duguay from the McCormick lab (Dalhousie University) and had key contributions from the laboratories of Dr. Jennifer Corcoran (University of Calgary), Dr. Darryl Falzarano (University of Saskatchewan/VIDO), and Dr. Stephen Bearne (Dalhousie University).

26 July 2022
Today Stacia Dolliver defended her MSc thesis “Characterizing the modulation of stress granule responses by coronaviruses” and became the first graduate student graduating from our laboratory! Congratulations Stacia! You set the bar high!

5-7 June 2022
Eileigh Kadijk, Stacia Dolliver, and Shan Ying presented their research at the Canadian Society for Virology Meeting in Edmonton, AB. We are very grateful to CSV for providing travel awards for all trainees! Our entire lab attended the meeting, which was not only the first post-pandemic in person conference for our group, but also the very first scientific conference for our trainees!

1 January 2022
Our laboratory turns 3 years old! We officially started in January 2019 with one research assistant and two undergraduate students. Including the PI, we are entering 2022 with 9 members! Like many virology labs we also extended our research focus to include coronaviruses. Having grown and matured, we are looking forward to new discoveries and great science!

24 March 2021
Thiopurines Activate an Antiviral Unfolded Protein Response That Blocks Influenza A Virus Glycoprotein Accumulation is out in the Journal of Virology! This paper is a product of long-time collaboration with Michel Roberge (UBC) and Craig McCormick (Dalhousie) laboratories on the search for host-directed antivirals that potentiate cellular stress responses!

3 March 2021
Our projects focused on mechanisms of viral host shutoff receive Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) funding in Fall 2020 Project Grant competition!!! We are very grateful to the reviewers, the VVP panel, and the CIHR for recognizing our work!

10 December 2020
Khaperskyy lab receives New Health Investigator Grant from Research Nova Scotia. This award will help fund our studies on the Role of stress granule formation in immune responses to respiratory viruses for the next 2 years! We are very grateful to Research Nova Scotia for this funding specifically designated for early career investigators!

1 October 2020
UV damage induces G3BP1-dependent stress granule formation that is not driven by translation arrest via mTOR inhibition. First Khaperskyy lab independent paper is out at Journal of Cell Science! First in what hopefully will be a series of studies of UV-induced SGs.

23 July, 2020
Selective Degradation of Host RNA Polymerase II Transcripts by Influenza A Virus PA-X Host Shutoff Protein is cited 42 times and ranks within top 10% most cited PLoS Pathogens papers published in 2016!!!

8 April 2020
Fine-tuning a blunt tool: Regulaton of viral host shutoff RNases. Daly et al., 2020. PLoS Pearl minireview is out! Another collaborative work with Gaglia lab