This award will support a long-term visit by Professor MaryAnn Jerkofsky, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of Maine, to Japan for a cooperative research project with Professor Tokuo Sano, Department of Aquatic Biosciences, Tokyo University of Fisheries. The researchers plan to undertake a study of herpesvirus and its relation to tumor cells in fish. Dr. Sano has isolated two fish herpesviruses and has demonstrated that each produces a tumor when injected into fish: a basal cell carcinoma for the YTV and a papilloma for CHV. He has not grown the tumors in vitro nor characterized viral gene expression in such cultured cells. Professor Jerkofsky has prior experience with the growth of viral-induced tumors in vitro and with characterization viral antigens present in such cells. The research will investigate the two potentially oncogenic herpesviruses in a system that may allow temperature to regulate virus production and viral gene expression. The research results have the potential to offer new models of both herpesvirus pathogenesis and oncogenicity which could lead to better biological characterization of the viruses CHV and YTV. The Department of Aquatic Biosciences at Tokyo's University of Fisheries has many ongoing fish tumor studies underway in its laboratories. Professor Sano is a first-rate Japanese fish pathology scientist. His experience, coupled with Professor Jerkofsky's expertise in the area of human herpes virology should provide a fruitful collaboration. It is expected that this collaboration will continue even after the formal agreement has terminated.
