Clinical and Research Background
Dr. Polyak is a Research Professor in the Virology Division of DLMP. He also holds adjunct faculty appointments in the UW’s Departments of Global Health (DGH) and Microbiology.
Dr. Polyak champions the education of the next generation of scientists and laboratorians as the Director of the Master’s of Laboratory Medicine Graduate Program and the Director of the Certificate Program for Clinical Laboratory Leadership and Management. He also serves on numerous MS and PhD students’ thesis committees and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses for DGH.
Dr. Polyak’s research laboratory studies virus-host interactions, including work on flaviviruses (hepatitis C virus and Zika virus), filoviruses (Ebola and Marburg, arenaviruses (Lassa, Junin, and Pichinde), and more recently, coronaviruses (SARS-CoV-2) and alphaviruses. His lab has long-standing expertise in studying the antiviral properties of botanical natural products and synthetic drugs in cell culture systems. His current research is focused on development of oral drug combinations for viral pandemic preparedness and response.
Dr. Polyak’s research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) including NIAID, NIDDK, NCCIH, and NIAAA. He is an editorial board member and/or reviewer for several virology and cell biology journals. He regularly reviews grant applications for the NIH and internationally for multiple countries including Belgium, Canada, England, Ireland, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.
Research Interests
Virology, virus-induced inflammation, flaviviruses, filoviruses, arenaviruses, coronaviruses, synthetic and natural antiviral compounds
Academic and Medical Appointments
Adjunct Professor, Department of Global Health
Adjunct Professor, Department of Microbiology
Education and Training
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1994-1998
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, 1993-1994
PhD (Molecular Virology and Immunology), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 1993
BSc (Honors Biology, summa cum laude), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, 1987
Publications
View on PubMed View on Google Scholar
Latest publications from PubMed