Dr. Michael Drebot
Director, Science Technology and Core Services;  Chief, Viral Zoonoses
Assistant Professor,  Medical Microbiology, University of Manitoba

Degrees: Ph.D (Dalhousie University, 1988),  MSc. (Dalhousie, 1983),  BSc.
(Dalhousie, 1980).

Mailing Address: National Microbiology Laboratory, 1015 Arlington Street,
Winnipeg, MB, R3E 3R2

Tel: (204) 789-6059 Fax: (204) 789-2082
E-mail: mailto:Mike_Drebot@phac-aspc.gc.ca
Research Interests:
Applied and basic research involving viral zoonoses such as West Nile virus, dengue, and hantaviruses (diagnostic development, surveillance, pathogenesis, antivirals).  Pathogen discovery using 454- pyrosequencing and microarray platforms.

Recent Publications:
  1. Booth S, Drebot MA, Martin IE, Ng LK.  2003.  Design of oligonucleotide arrays to detect point mutations: Molecular typing of antibiotic resistant strains of Neisseria gonnorrhoeae and hantavirus infected deer mice. Mol Cell Probes 17: 77-84.
  2. Wong SJ, Boyle RH, Demarest VL, Woodmansee AN, Kramer LD, Li H, Drebot M, Koski RA, Fikrig E,  Martin DA, Shi PY.  2003.  Immunoassay targeting nonstructural protein 5 to differentiate West Nile virus    infection from dengue and St. Louis encephalitis virus infections and from flavivirus vaccination.  J Clin Microbiol. 41:4217-4223
  3. Berry JD, Jones S, Drebot MA et al.  2004.  Development and characterisation of neutralising monoclonal antibody to the SARS-coronavirus. J Virol Methods. 120(1):87-96.
  4. He R, Andonov A, Traykova-Andonova M, Cao J, Cutts T, Grudesky E, Deschambaul, Y, Berry J, Drebot M,  Li X.  2004.  Potent and selective inhibition of SARS coronavirus replication by aurintricarboxylic acid. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 6;320(4):1199-203
  5. Saldanha J, Shead S, Heath A, Drebot M  2004.  Collaborative Study to Evaluate a Working Reagent for West Nile Virus (WNV) RNA Detection by NAT. Transfusion 45: 97-102
  6. Vinayagamoorthy T, Mulatz K, Drebot M, Hodkinson R.  2004.  Molecular typing of West Nile virus, dengue,  and St. Louis encephalitis virus using multiplex sequencing.  J Mol Diagnostics 7: 152-159.
  7. Pupo M, Guzmán MG,. Fernández R, Llop A, Dickinson FO, Pérez D, Cruz R, González T, Estevez G, González  H, Santos P, Kouri G, Andonova M, Lindsay R, Artsob H, Drebot M.  2005.  Serological evidence for West  Nile virus infection of humans and horses in Cuba.  Emerg Infect Dis 12: 1022-4.
  8. Drebot MA, Artsob H.  2006.  West Nile virus: A pathogen of concern for older adults.  Geratrics and Aging 9: 465-71.
  9. Shaikh NA, Ge J, Zhao YX, Walker P, Drebot M.  2007.  Development of a novel, rapid, and sensitive immunochromatographic strip assay specific for West Nile Virus (WNV) IgM and testing of its diagnostic accuracy
    in patients suspected of WNV infection.  Clin Chem 53:2031-4.
  10. Safronetz D, Lindsay R, Hjelle B, Medina RA, Mirowsky-Garcia K, Drebot MA. 2007. Use of IgG avidity to indirectly monitor epizootic transmission of sin nombre virus in deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus).  Am J Trop Med Hyg 75:1135-9.
  11. Meier-Stephenson V, Langley JM, Drebot M, Artsob H.  2007.  Encephalitis in the summer: a case of snowshoe hare (California serogroup) virus infection in Nova Scotia.  Can Commun Dis Rep. 33:23-6.