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World Hepatitis Day 2025
Past, Present and Future of Hepatitis Research at the U of A
Part 1: Discovery
World Hepatitis Day - July 28, 2025
As we mark World Hepatitis Day 2025, we at the Clinical Trials Office (CTO) are proud to launch a new video series spotlighting the University of Alberta’s contributions to the global fight against hepatitis B and C, alongside decades of international collaboration - from groundbreaking discovery to global impact, and now, to vaccine development.
This first installment recognizes that viral hepatitis is a global health challenge met by a global research community - from pioneering Canadian work on lamivudine (3TC) at Biochem Pharma and McGill University, to the discovery of hepatitis C and its key diagnostic tools at Chiron Corporation in the U.S., to major curative therapeutic breakthroughs by Gilead, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AbbVie, and landmark research by Rockefeller University, Heidelberg University, and others.
Canada and the University of Alberta have been privileged to be part of this international effort. In this video, we hear directly from:
Sir Michael Houghton, Nobel Laureate and co-discoverer of the hepatitis C virus, who shares how his work in 1989 led to:
- The development of global HCV blood tests in the early 1990s
- The pharmaceutical breakthroughs in curative HCV antivirals by 2014
- And today, collaborative efforts with the Alberta Cell Therapy Manufacturing (ACTM) facility and the Clinical Trials Office (CTO) to develop a preventative HCV vaccine
Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, Founding Director of the Li Ka Shing Institute of Virology, reflects on decades of pioneering virology research and the University of Alberta’s role as a global leader in hepatitis science, including his pivotal work demonstrating the effect of lamivudine (3TC) on hepatitis B, a compound originally discovered by Dr. Bernard Belleau and his team through their research on HIV.
Dr. Vanessa Meier-Stephenson, clinician scientist at the University of Alberta, explains what hepatitis C is, who it affects, and why prevention is key to eliminating the virus globally.
This video is a powerful tribute to the collaborative science that brought the global effort to where we are today - and a call to action for the future. As Sir Michael Houghton reminds us, we are closer than ever to eliminating hepatitis C as a global health threat.
Watch Part 1 Now:
Stay tuned for Parts 2 & 3:
- Part 2: Hepatitis C Today - Patient stories, treatment, and care
- Part 3: A New Hope - Behind the scenes of Canada’s first HCV vaccine trial
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