Calgary, AB — Dr. Lorne Tyrrell's scientific curiosity about a harmful virus led to his discovery of the world's first effective oral medication for hepatitis B, a life-threatening viral disease that has infected about two billion people.

Research by Dr. Tyrrell, his colleagues and students at the University of Alberta, which led to development of the patented anti-viral drug lamivudine for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (HBV) infection, has won this year's top prize from the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation — the $100,000 Encana Principal Award, sponsored by Encana Corporation.

Lamivudine is now licensed in more than 120 countries for the treatment of chronic HBV infection, which causes over one million premature deaths annually. The drug, marketed by pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, dramatically suppresses the virus's ability to reproduce in the body. Treatment with lamivudine has slowed or prevented the life-shortening consequences of the devastating disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. It has also reopened the door for HBV-infected patients with advanced liver disease to receive and benefit from liver transplants.

"There's no doubt that the drug markedly decreases the rate at which people develop cirrhosis or liver cancer," says Dr. Tyrrell, Professor at the U of A and holder of the GlaxoSmithKline Endowed Chair in Virology in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology.

Dr. Tyrrell realized, while teaching a graduate course in virology, that the structure of HBV and the unique way it replicates itself in liver cells in ducks could be used to develop a drug that would block the virus from reproducing in liver cells in people. Working with then-U of A chemist Dr. Morris Robins, Dr. Tyrrell and his team developed a system to test chemical compounds called nucleoside analogues, some of which suppressed HBV from replicating. First with ducks, then with chimpanzees, and finally with people in clinical trials, Dr. Tyrrell's pioneering work showed that oral doses of lamivudine dramatically reduced the amount of hepatitis B in their blood.

"It is not hyperbole to write that there are few scientists who have done as much to advance the health of those infected with hepatitis B virus as Dr. Tyrrell," says Dr. Timothy Block, President of the Hepatitis B Foundation at the Pennsylvania Institute for Hepatitis and Virus Research.

Dr. Tyrrell, a former dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the U of A who has helped shape policy in education, health care and health research, is currently leader of the university's Centre of Excellence for Viral Hepatitis, recently funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Alberta government through Alberta Science and Research Investments Program.

Dr. Tyrrell's numerous awards include the Order of Canada, the Alberta Order of Excellence, the national Prix Galien award, and the Canadian Medical Association's FNG Starr Award. A gifted teacher, he continues to teach virology to students, and to pursue research on both hepatitis B and C, with the ultimate goal of curing these diseases.

Since 1982, the Ernest C. Manning Awards Foundation's annual program (www.manningawards.ca) has rewarded leading Canadian innovators with $3.5 million in prize money. This year's four major winners, announced throughout September, will share a total of $145,000. All will be honoured at the annual gala awards dinner Sept. 30 in Winnipeg.