Houghton has been director of the University of Alberta’s Li Ka Shing applied virology institute since 2013, after he secured a Canada Excellence in Research Chair position. But it is his work performed over a decade in the 1980s that made Houghton a household name among the virologist community.
Hepatitis C is currently attributed to 400,000 deaths worldwide annually. If left untreated, it can cause cirrhosis in the liver and in some cases, cancer. The clone led to a larger chain and eventually Houghton’s team was able to publish a groundbreaking paper labelling the virus as hepatitis C. Houghton is now working with his team in Edmonton to create a vaccine to stop the spread of hepatitis C worldwide.
“It’s 10- to 100-fold less expensive to vaccinate high-risk groups than it is to treat them with these expensive antivirals,” said Houghton.Now, with a $750,000 federal grant, Houghton is working on a vaccine for the virus behind COVID-19. He believes there will be a need for multiple vaccines in order to curb the worldwide pandemic.