Research Interests
Antivirals, Broad-based antiviral therapeutics, Cell Signaling, Molecular Biology, Viral-induced immune response, Viruses
Research Focus Teams
Cancer, COVID-19
Departments
Contact
Email: francois.jean@ubc.ca
Office Phone: phone: 604–822–0256
Publications
Lab Website
François Jean, PhD, is an expert in antiviral drug discovery and professor of molecular virology at UBC. He is the founder of the UBC’s Facility for Infectious Disease and Epidemic Research (FINDER), one of the largest university-based containment level 3 (CL-3) facilities in the world. He is currently leading major international research initiatives funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to discover broad-spectrum drugs active against current infections with the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants and future pandemic-causing viral pathogens. He is the Lead of Pillar 10, Antiviral Strategies & Antiviral Therapeutics, at the Coronavirus Variants Rapid Response Network (CoVaRR-Net). He was previously a Science Advisor with the COVID-19 Therapeutic Task Force of the Government of Canada. He has won several prestigious scholarly awards including the CIHR New Investigator Salary Award, the UBC Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Early Career Scholar Start-Up Research Grant, the Thermo Fisher Scientific Award from the Canadian Society for Microbiologists (CSM), and UBC’s Faculty of Science Excellence in Service Award in recognition of his leadership role in establishing FINDER.
UBC Science Achievement Award (2010)
Fisher Scientific Award recipient (2003) [Canadian Society of Microbiologists (CSM)]
CIHR/Health Canada Research Initiative on Hepatitis C New Investigator Award (2000-2005)
Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Early Career UBC Award (2000-2001)
It is now well established that hijacking of host-cell biosynthetic pathways by human enveloped viruses is a shared molecular event essential for the viral life cycle. The next frontier is identifying the specific and common critical host-cell pathways that are hijacked by those pathogenic human viruses of great concern around the world. This will enable development of global antiviral strategies that will catalyze the creation of therapeutics with novel mechanisms of action that target critical host components that are essential to infection and disease. Developing novel host-directed therapeutic agents will have a dramatic impact globally by providing desperately needed broad-spectrum therapeutics against drug-resistant viruses that are continuously eroding the therapeutic armamentarium, leaving fewer or no alternative antiviral agents available.
The research programs of my laboratory are based on my breakthroughs in the field of broad-based antiviral therapeutics (Senior, K., 2000. Early steps towards a broad-based antiviral drug. The Lancet 355: 729). My lab is exploring in detail how our novel therapeutic approaches can combat human viral infections using our recently identified protein-based inhibitors directed at those host-cell proteases and viral proteases that are essential for the virus life cycle. I am now expanding the scope of my research to include our newly discovered marine natural products, natural broad-spectrum antiviral peptides, and therapeutic microRNAs. My team is developing and applying novel efficacious broad-based antiviral agents against important human enveloped viruses of major public health concern in Canada and around the world [e.g., hepatitis C virus (HCV), West Nile virus (WNV), dengue virus (DNV), HIV-1, and influenza A virus (InfA)]. My research programs are supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and infrastructure funds from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund (BCKDF).
The results of my research programs have allowed my team (i) to generate new antiviral agents for dissecting the biological functions of viral and host-cell enzymes necessary for the virus replication and life cycle, (ii) to define the biological impact of new classes of antiviral agents on viral infection and disease, (iii) to discover new exosome-associated biomarkers for viral diseases, and (iv) to provide insights into new therapeutic avenues for treating and diagnosing important viral diseases such as hepatitis C, epidemic viral encephalitis, AIDS, and infectious respiratory diseases.
Visit the lab website for more detail: https://mbim.ubc.ca/people/faculty/francois-jean