{"id":84557,"date":"2018-09-13T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T19:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=84557"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:27:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T20:27:36","slug":"ebola-virus-research-in-liberia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/09\/13\/ebola-virus-research-in-liberia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola virus research in Liberia part of Kapi\u02bbolani <abbr title=\"Community College\">CC<\/abbr> professor\u2019s mission"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kUQS2EZ9lAM?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" title=\"YouTube video player\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_84565\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-84565\" style=\"width: 240px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/kapiolani-john-berestecky.png\" alt=\"John Berestecky\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" class=\"size-full wp-image-84565\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-84565\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">John Berestecky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s note<\/strong>: The federal government withdrew grant funding for this research in 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>John Berestecky<\/strong>, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu\/\"><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> Community College<\/a> microbiology professor, is on a mission in Liberia, and his spirit is unstoppable.<\/p>\n<p>This past summer, Berestecky accompanied three <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> and University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa students to help with Ebola and Lassa virus research at the University of Liberia in Monrovia.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We wanted to demonstrate that we could put together a laboratory here on short notice and conduct decent science in this environment,&rdquo; Berestecky said, adding that the most challenging part about the project was the country\u02bbs underdeveloped infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Berestecky\u2019s goal is to forge a collaboration between <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> and the University of Liberia, which will lead to a graduate and research program in emerging viral diseases at the latter.<\/p>\n<p><span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> student <strong>Melissa Takaaze<\/strong> worked with him at the University of Liberia over the summer. &ldquo;The work can be done and it can be done well,&rdquo; said Takaaze. &ldquo;I am proud and humbled to be a part of that experience, to be able to demonstrate the way that we are able to overcome these obstacles and perform great work.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Berestecky hopes to involve the biotechnology and medical laboratory technician programs at <span aria-label=\"Kapiolani\">Kapi&#699;olani<\/span> <abbr>CC<\/abbr> as well as the graduate education resources of the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology programs at the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa John A. Burns School of Medicine, where he is an affiliate graduate faculty member.<\/p>\n<p>Takaaze currently serves as an IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (<abbr title=\"IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence\">INBRE<\/abbr>) student researcher in Berestecky\u2019s laboratory at the medical school. <strong>Brien Haun<\/strong>, a graduate student in the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology, and senior biology major Kialanei Garalde-Machida were also part of the Liberia team.<\/p>\n<p>Before he began teaching, Berestecky served in the Peace Corps in Liberia from 1979 to 1982. Over the years, he has made numerous trips to Liberia and, in 2013 took a leave of absence to work with its university to revamp and renew its biology and chemistry curricula.<\/p>\n<p>More information on <abbr>INBRE<\/abbr> may be found at:  <a href=\"http:\/\/inbre.jabsom.hawaii.edu\/\">http:\/\/inbre.jabsom.hawaii.edu\/<\/a> <\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212;By Louise Yamamoto<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In summer2018, John Berestecky accompanied three <abbr>UH<\/abbr> students to help with Ebola and Lassa virus research at the University of Liberia in Monrovia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[1040,134,31,63,698,429,9,56,1149],"class_list":["post-84557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","tag-biomedical-science","tag-international","tag-john-a-burns-school-of-medicine","tag-kapiolani-community-college","tag-staff-recognition","tag-tropical-medicine-and-medical-microbiology","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","tag-virus","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84557"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217714,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84557\/revisions\/217714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}