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Leondios G. Kostrikis

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Leondios G. Kostrikis
Born (1963-04-20) April 20, 1963 (age 61)
Nicosia, Cyprus
NationalityCypriot
Known forRole of human genetics in HIV-1 transmission and AIDS disease progression
AwardsFulbright Scholar, Member of Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts, Member of Academia Europaea
Scientific career
FieldsMolecular Virology
InstitutionsUniversity of Cyprus

Leondios G. Kostrikis (born April 20, 1963) is a molecular virologist from Cyprus and a professor of molecular virology at the University of Cyprus. He is a founding member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts and a member of Academia Europaea. In 2022, he attracted media attention with the news of having found a "Deltacron" Coronavirus variant, a recombinant between Delta and Omicron strains. The emergence of this phenomenon initially evoked scepticism, characterized by concerns primarily centered around contamination or coinfection as plausible etiological contributors. These hypotheses were predominantly disseminated through unsubstantiated assertions within the realms of social and mass media, lacking concurrent scientific evidence to validate their claims. Comparable observations on a global scale dispelled doubt, eventually leading to the recognition of Delta-Omicron variants by the scientific community and their subsequent monitoring by the World Health Organization.

Early life and education

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Kostrikis was born in Cyprus.[1] He received his scientific education in Biochemistry from New York University. In 1987, he received his B.Sc. degree, supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1993, he received his Ph.D. from the same university[1]

Career

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He moved to Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC) to do HIV-1 research. In 1999, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Rockefeller University.[1] In 2003, he returned to Cyprus. He became Head of Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology and Professor of Molecular Virology at the University of Cyprus.[1] In 2019, he was elected as a Founding Member (Biological Sciences) of The Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts and in 2020, he was elected as Member of the Biosciences Steering Panel of the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) and as a Distinguished Fellow of the International Engineering and Technology Institute (IETI). In 2020, he received the Cyprus Distinguished Researcher Award in Life Sciences from the Research and Innovation Foundation in Cyprus. In 2024, he was elected as a Member of The Academia Europaea (Academy of Europe) in the Section of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

SARS-CoV-2 Deltacron hybrid variant

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Following the emergence of COVID-19 Omicron variant, Kostrikis announced in January 2022 in local TV[2] that his Cypriot health research team in Nicosia had found a new COVID-19 variant dubbing it "Deltacron".[3] Following the initial announcement, indiscriminate news of the COVID-19 hybrid variant dubbed "Deltacron" spread quickly in mainstream media.[4][5][6][7]

Maria Van Kerkhove (WHO's COVID-19 Technical Leader), Krutika Kuppalli (member of WHO's COVID-19 Technical Team) and Thomas Peacock, a postdoctoral fellow (Imperial College London) challenged this announcement, saying a lab mistake was a more probable explanation for Cyprus lab's finding, although they did not provide any experimental data refuting the finding.[8] Initially, some journalists have argued, without providing any experimental data, that it is most likely the result of a lab contamination, which purportedly shares specific properties with two different strains.[9][10] Kostrikis' team has published a peer-reviewed study, providing experimental data that confirms the original observation about Deltacron was correct.[11] Additionally, substantial scientific evidence has been produced since then, supporting the existence of Deltacron (Delta-Omicron) viruses, characterized by Delta (AY.4, AY.x) and Omicron (BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.x) variants, which have been identified and verified by various laboratories around the world.[12][13][14][15][16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Leondios G. Kostrikis, Ph.D." Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  2. ^ Dr. Christian Kretschmer (Arzt) (31 January 2022). "Supervariante Deltakron gibt es nicht – Fehler durch Kontamination". Gelbe Liste (in German).
  3. ^ Georgiou, Georgios (January 8, 2022). "Cyprus Finds Covid-19 Infections That Combine Delta and Omicron". Bloomberg News. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  4. ^ Lee, Bruce Y. (March 12, 2022). "New 'Deltacron' Covid-19 Coronavirus Variant Is A Recombinant Of Delta And Omicron". Forbes. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  5. ^ Snider, Mike (March 10, 2022). "There may be a new COVID variant, Deltacron. Here's what we know about it". USA Today. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  6. ^ Khan, Amir (January 17, 2022). "'Deltacron': Should we worry about new COVID-19 variants merging?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  7. ^ Zimmer, Carl (March 11, 2022). "New 'Deltacron' Variant Is Rare and Similar to Omicron, Experts Say". The New York Times. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  8. ^ Kreier, Freda (January 21, 2022). "Deltacron: the story of the variant that wasn't". Nature. 602 (7895): 19. Bibcode:2022Natur.602...19K. doi:10.1038/d41586-022-00149-9. PMID 35058630. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  9. ^ Lapid, Nancy (March 9, 2022). "Variant that combines Delta and Omicron identified; dogs sniff out virus with high accuracy". Reuters. Retrieved March 14, 2022.
  10. ^ Gubernator, Sebastian (2022-01-10). "Experten halten angeblichen "Demikron"-Nachweis für Laborfehler" (in German). Die Welt, cited via MSN. Retrieved 2022-01-11. Translation: Experts say the "Demikron" finding is a lab mistake
  11. ^ Chrysostomou, Andreas C.; Vrancken, Bram; Haralambous, Christos; Alexandrou, Maria; Gregoriou, Ioanna; Ioannides, Marios; Ioannou, Costakis; Kalakouta, Olga; Karagiannis, Christos; Marcou, Markella; Masia, Christina; Mendris, Michail; Papastergiou, Panagiotis; Patsalis, Philippos C.; Pieridou, Despo (2023-09-15). "Unraveling the Dynamics of Omicron (BA.1, BA.2, and BA.5) Waves and Emergence of the Deltacton Variant: Genomic Epidemiology of the SARS-CoV-2 Epidemic in Cyprus (Oct 2021-Oct 2022)". Viruses. 15 (9): 1933. doi:10.3390/v15091933. ISSN 1999-4915. PMC 10535466. PMID 37766339.
  12. ^ Wang, Liang; F. Gao, George (2022). "The 'Wolf' Is Indeed Coming: Recombinant 'Deltacron' SARS-CoV-2 Detected". China CDC Weekly. 4 (14): 285–287. doi:10.46234/ccdcw2022.054. PMC 9008264. PMID 35433090.
  13. ^ Karbalaei, Mohsen; Keikha, Masoud (July 2022). "Deltacron is a recombinant variant of SARS-CoV-2 but not a laboratory mistake". Annals of Medicine & Surgery. 79. doi:10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104032. PMC 9212869. PMID 35757314.
  14. ^ Liu, Li-Teh; Tsai, Jih-Jin; Chu, Justin Jang Hann; Chen, Chun-Hong; Chen, Liang-Jen; Lin, Ping-Chang; Tsai, Ching-Yi; Hsu, Miao-Chen; Chuang, Wan-Long; Hwang, Shang-Jyh; Chong, Inn-Wen (June 2023). "The identification and phylogenetic analysis of SARS-CoV -2 delta variants in Taiwan". The Kaohsiung Journal of Medical Sciences. 39 (6): 624–636. doi:10.1002/kjm2.12665. PMID 36951529.
  15. ^ Sant’Anna, Fernando Hayashi; Finger Andreis, Tiago; Salvato, Richard Steiner; Muterle Varela, Ana Paula; Comerlato, Juliana; Gregianini, Tatiana Schäffer; Barcellos, Regina Bones; de Souza Godinho, Fernanda Marques; Resende, Paola Cristina; da Luz Wallau, Gabriel; y Castro, Thaís Regina; Casarin, Bruna Campestrini; de Almeida Vieira, Andressa; Schwarzbold, Alexandre Vargas; de Arruda Trindade, Priscila; Tumioto Giannini, Gabriela Luchiari; Freese, Luana; Bristot, Giovana; Brasil, Carolina Serpa; de Oliveira Rocha, Bruna; Martins, Paloma Bortolini; de Oliveira, Francine Hehn; van Oosterhout, Cock; Wendland, Eliana (February 2023). "Incipient Parallel Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Deltacron Variant in South Brazil". Vaccines. 11 (2): 212. doi:10.3390/vaccines11020212. PMC 9961971. PMID 36851091.
  16. ^ Sant’Anna, Fernando Hayashi; Finger Andreis, Tiago; Salvato, Richard Steiner; Muterle Varela, Ana Paula; Comerlato, Juliana; Gregianini, Tatiana Schäffer; Barcellos, Regina Bones; de Souza Godinho, Fernanda Marques; Resende, Paola Cristina; da Luz Wallau, Gabriel; y Castro, Thaís Regina; Casarin, Bruna Campestrini; de Almeida Vieira, Andressa; Schwarzbold, Alexandre Vargas; de Arruda Trindade, Priscila; Tumioto Giannini, Gabriela Luchiari; Freese, Luana; Bristot, Giovana; Brasil, Carolina Serpa; de Oliveira Rocha, Bruna; Martins, Paloma Bortolini; de Oliveira, Francine Hehn; van Oosterhout, Cock; Wendland, Eliana (February 2023). "Incipient Parallel Evolution of SARS-CoV-2 Deltacron Variant in South Brazil". Vaccines. 11 (2): 212. doi:10.3390/vaccines11020212. PMC 9961971. PMID 36851091.
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