Karoly Varga, M.D.

Visiting Assistant Professor

Biography

Dr. Varga earned his medical degree at the Semmelweis School of Medicine in Budapest, Hungary. After graduation, he completed his residency training in general surgery under the supervision of Drs. Lajos Flautner and Peter Kupcsulik at the First Department of Surgery. Dr. Varga then rose to the rank of Assistant Professor of Surgery within this department, where his main interests included pancreatic and colorectal surgery and surgical correction of portal hypertension. He was subsequently granted two scholarships to the Radiumhospitalet in Oslo, Norway, where he focused on micrometastases of esophageal malignomas under the leadership of Dr. Karl Erick Giercksky. In 2000, he joined the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center and the Department of Cell Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, first as a Postdoctoral Fellow and then as a Research Associate Professor. Under the mentorship of Drs. Eric Sorscher and Jim Collawn, Dr. Varga conducted basic science research involving correction of biogenesis, trafficking, and surface stability problems related to the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. Dr. Varga joined the Division of Immunology and Organ Transplantation in November 2007.

Selected Publications

Varga K, Goldstein RF, Jurkuvenaite A, Chen L, Matalon S, Sorscher EJ, Bebok Z, Collawn JF. Enhanced cell surface stability of rescued DeltaF508 cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator by pharmacological chaperones. Biochem J. 2007 Dec 4; [Epub ahead of print]

Rowe, SM; Varga, K; Rab, A; Bebok, Z; Byram, K; Li, Y; Sorscher, EJ; Clancy, JP. Restoration of W1282X CFTR activity by enhanced expression. Am J Respir Cell Mol Biol. 2007 Sep;37(3):347-56.

Jurkuvenaite A, Varga K, Nowotarski K, Kirk KL, Sorscher EJ, Li Y, Clancy JP, Bebok Z, Collawn JF. Mutations in the amino-terminus of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator enhance endocytosis. J Biol Chem. J Biol Chem. 2006 Feb 10;281(6):3329-34.

Varga K, Jurkuvenaite A, Wakefield J, Hong JS, Guimbellot JS, Venglarik CJ, Niraj A, Mazur M, M, Sorscher EJ, Collawn JF, Bebok Z. Efficient Intracellular processing of the endogenous cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator in epithelial cell lines. J Biol Chem. 2004 May 21;279(21):22578-84.

Estell K, Braunstein G, Tucker T, Varga K, Collawn JF, Schwiebert LM. Plasma membrane CFTR regulates RANTES expression via its C-terminal PDZ-interacting motif. Mol Cell Biol. 2003 Jan;23(2):594-606.

Peter K, Varga K, Bebok Z, McNicholas-Bevensee CM, Schwiebert L, Sorscher EJ, Schwiebert EM, Collawn JF. Ablation of internalization signals in the carboxyl-terminal tail of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator enhances cell surface expression. J Biol Chem. 2002 Dec 20;277(51):49952-7