Academic Degrees

•   Ph.D. in Virology:                                                                                Lomonosov  Moscow State University, Department of Virology, Russia (1998)

•   M.S./B.S. in Biochemistry:                                                                                 Lomonosov  Moscow State University, Department of Virology, Russia (1995)

Professional Experience

• Assistant Professor (07/2006-present): UNC Charlotte, Dept. of Biology                

• Research Assistant Professor (2004-2006): University of Florida College of Medicine, Dept. of Molecular Genetics and  Microbiology, [Mentor: Dr. Sue A. Moyer] 

• Postdoctoral Research Associate (2001 – 2004):University of Wisconsin-Madison, Institute for Molecular  Virology,    [Mentor: Dr.  Paul G. Ahlquist] 

• Postdoctoral Research Associate (1999-2000): University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, CREC [Mentor: Dr. William O. Dawson] 

Grdzelishvili's Lab (November, 2009, left to right):

Andrea Murphy,  Jessica Dennis, Megan Moerdyk-Schauwecker,  Nirav Shah , Sean Vidulich, Darla DeStephanis, Valery Grdzelishvili

Research Interests

The major objective of my research is to understand the mechanisms of viral RNA replication and transcription in the nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses (the order Mononegavirales) represented by a wide variety of human, animal (vertebrates as well as invertebrates) and plant viruses, where the RNA polymerase complex possesses unique features. The order Mononegavirales includes many important human and animal pathogens, such as rabies, measles, Ebola, Marburg, Nipah, Hendra, Borna disease, parainfluenza, Newcastle disease, rinderpest, and other viruses. Importantly, the Ebola and Marburg viruses are classified as category A bioweapon agents and are currently considered to be one of the bioterrorism threats. A detailed understanding of the mode RNA synthesis in these viruses is fundamental to developing reagents to prevent and combat these deadly diseases. To provide insights into the biology of these viruses, my studies employ two prototypic Mononegavirales, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV, a rhabdovirus) and Sendai virus (paramyxovirus), which serve as attractive models due to a lack of serious pathogenicity for humans and their very efficient replication in a wide range of cell lines. The two-virus approach allows the identification of universal as well as virus-specific mechanisms of viral RNA replication/transcription, because VSV and Sendai virus belong to the different families within the order Mononegavirales. Another direction of my research will focus on the exploitation of VSV and Sendai virus as clinically important vaccine and oncolytic vectors. 

            Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) life cycle

           VSV                               Ebola virus                            Sendai virus

Courses Taught

•  Cell Biology Lab BIOL 3111L – Fall 2006

•  Virology [BIOL 4259/5259] – from Fall 2007

•  Topics in Virology [BIOL 6000/8000] – from Spring 2007

Important Links

•  Virology internet resources

•  American Society for Virology

•  Institute for Molecular Virology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

•  Nonsegmented negative-strand RNA viruses (order Mononegavirales)

•  CDC Bioterrorism Agents information

•  NIH NIAID Biodefence research resources

•  Protocols in Molecular Biology

•  Pubmed

•  ISI Web of Knowledge

•  NIH NCBI Bioinformatics resources

•  European Bioinformatics Institute resources

•  GeneBee - Molecular Biology Server, Belozersky Institute of Physico-Chemical Biology, Moscow State University, Russia

•  Saccharomyces Genome Database

•  Republic of Georgia

Selected Publications

    Moerdyk-Schauwecker M., Hwang S. and Grdzelishvili  V.Z. 2009 "Analysis of virion associated host proteins in vesicular stomatitis virus using a proteomics approach" Virology Journal, 6:166. PDF

   Murphy A.M.  and Grdzelishvili V.Z. 2009 "Identification of Sendai Virus L Protein Amino Acid Residues Affecting Viral mRNA Cap Methylation" Journal of Virology, 83(4):1669-81. PDF

   Furr S.R., Chauhan V.S., Sterka D.Jr., Grdzelishvili V., and Marriott I. 2008 “Characterization of retinoic acid-inducible gene-I expression in primary murine glia following exposure to vesicular stomatitis virus”, Journal of Neurovirology, 14(6): 503 - 513. PDF
 

   Grdzelishvili V.Z., Smallwood S., Tower D., Hall R.L., Hunt D.M., and Moyer S.A. 2006 “Identification of a new region in the vesicular stomatitis virus L protein which determines defects in mRNA cap methylation”, Virology  350, 394-405 PDF

   Grdzelishvili V.Z., Smallwood S., Tower D., Hall R.L., Hunt D.M., and Moyer S.A. 2005 “A single amino acid change in the L polymerase protein of vesicular stomatitis virus completely abolishes viral mRNA cap methylation”, Journal of Virology  79, 7327-7337 PDF

   Grdzelishvili V.Z., Garcia-Ruiz H., Watanabe T.,  and Ahlquist P. 2005 “Mutual interference between genomic RNA replication and subgenomic RNA transcription in brome mosaic virus”, Journal of Virology  79, 1438-1451 PDF

   Kushner D.B, Lindenbach B.D., Grdzelishvili V.Z., Noueiry A.O., Paul S.M., and Ahlquist P. 2003  “Systematic, genome-wide identification of host genes affecting replication of a positive-strand RNA virus”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA  100, 15764-15769 PDF

   Grdzelishvili V.Z., Chapman S.N., Dawson W.O. and Lewandowski D.J. 2000 “Mapping of the tobacco mosaic virus movement protein and coat protein subgenomic RNA promoters in vivo”, Virology 275, 177-192 PDF

   Solovyev, A. G., Savenkov E. I., Grdzelishvili V. Z., Kalinina N. O., Morozov S. Y., Schiemann J., and Atabekov J. G. 1999 “Movement of hordeivirus hybrids with exchanges in the triple gene block”, Virology  253, 278-287 PDF

   Solovyev, A. G., Zelenina D. A., Savenkov E. I., Grdzelishvili V. Z., Morozov S. Y., Maiss E., Casper R., and Atabekov J. G.. 1997 “Host-controlled cell-to-cell movement of a hybrid barley stripe mosaic virus expressing a dianthovirus movement protein”, Intervirology  40,1-6

   Solovyev, A. G., Zelenina D. A., Savenkov E. I., Grdzelishvili V. Z., Morozov S. Y., Lesemann D. E., Maiss E., Casper R., and Atabekov J. G.. 1996 “Movement of a barley stripe mosaic virus chimera with a tobacco mosaic virus movement protein”, Virology  217, 435-441. PDF

Selected Meeting Papers:

     Shah N., Sunderland A., and Grdzelishvili V.Z., 2009 “Cell type dependent antiviral effect of ribavirin on replication of two distinct negative-strand nonsegmented RNA viruses”, 28th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 10-15, Abstracts

     Murphy A. and Grdzelishvili V.Z., 2009 “Functional analysis of the methyltransferase domain of the Sendai virus large polymerase protein”, 28th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 10-15, Abstracts, P2-7.

    Moerdyk-Schauwecker M. and Grdzelishvili V.Z., 2009 “Analysis of virion incorporated host proteins in two Mononegavirales using mass spectrometry”, 28th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Vancouver, BC, Canada, July 10-15, Abstracts, W5-7.

Marriott, I, Chauhan, V.S., Sterka, D.G, and Grdzelishvili, V.Z. 2009.  “Vesicular stomatitis virus infects primary murine microglia and astocytes and induces replication-dependent inflammatory cytokine production” The 96^th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Immunologists, May 8-12, Seattle WA. J. Immunol.  182:133.47.

   Grdzelishvili V.Z. and Murphy A. 2008 “Critical amino acid residues for mRNA cap methylation in the large polymerase protein of Sendai virus”, XIIVth International Congress of Virology, Istanbul, Turkey, August 10-15, Abstracts, VOP-219

Murphy A. and Grdzelishvili V.Z., 2008 “Identification of the residues within the Sendai virus large polymerase protein essential for mRNA cap methylation”, 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University July 12-16, Abstracts, W45-9

    Grdzelishvili V. Z., S. Smallwood, D. Tower, R.L. Hall, D.M. Hunt, and S.A. Moyer. 2005 “Single amino acid changes in the L protein of vesicular stomatitis virus confer host restriction and defects in viral mRNA cap methylation” XIIIth International Congress of Virology, San Francisco, CA, July 23-28, Abstracts, 234V

 Grdzelishvili V. Z., S. Smallwood, D. Tower, R.L. Hall, D.M. Hunt, and S.A. Moyer. 2005 “Single amino acid changes in the L protein of vesicular stomatitis virus confer host restriction and defects in viral mRNA cap methylation” 24nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, State College, Pennsylvania, June 18-22, Abstracts

 Grdzelishvili V. Z. and P. Ahlquist. 2003 “Interference between subgenomic RNA transcription and genomic RNA3 accumulation in brome mosaic virus” 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Davis, California, July 12-16, Abstracts, number W8-6

Kushner, D.B., Lindenbach, B.D., Grdzelishvili, V.Z., Paul, S.M., and Ahlquist, P. 2003. “Systematic functional genomics cataloging of host gene functions in brome mosaic virus replication”. 22nd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Davis, California, July 12-16, Abstracts, number W33-1

Grdzelishvili V. Z. and P. Ahlquist 2002 “High-throughput screening of BMV mutants to separate replication and subgenomic RNA transcription functions” 21^th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Lexington, Kentucky, July, 20-24, Abstracts, number W47-2

 Knapp E., Grdzelishvili V. Z., G.M. Danyluk and D.J. Lewandowsky 2002 “ The role of trancated 126-kDa protein in movement of TMV defective RNAs” 21^th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Lexington, Kentucky, July, 20-24, Abstracts, number W20-8.

 Kim K., P. Angeletti, Grdzelishvili V. Z., P. Ahlquist and P. Lambert. 2001 “Stable replication of human papillomavirus 16 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae” ICRF/UCSF 2001 DNA Tumour Virus Meeting, Churchill College, Cambridge, England, July, 24-29, number 6.

 Grdzelishvili V. Z., D.J. Lewandowski and W.O. Dawson. 2000 “Mapping of the subgenomic mRNA promoter for the movement protein gene of tobacco mosaic virus in vivo“ 19^th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology, Fort Collins, Colorado, July, 8-12, Abstracts, number W27-8