Leondios G. Kostrikis

Kostrikis received his scientific education in biochemistry from New York University. In 1987, he received his B.Sc. degree, supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. In 1993, he received his Ph.D.

He then moved to Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center (ADARC) to do HIV research. In 1999, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Rockefeller University. In 2003, he returned to Cyprus. He became Head of Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology and Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Cyprus.[1]

In November 2021 following the emergence of COVID-19 Omicron variant, Kostrikis announced that a new aware of COVID-19 variant was the first reported by Cypriot health research team, so called "Deltacron". It is combined of Delta and Omicron mutations. Since then, many virologists have argued that it is most likely the result of a laboratory contamination. However, in January 2022, Kostrikis announced that his research group at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia, who discovered SARS-CoV-2 Deltacron hybrid variant since two months ago, which purportedly shares specific properties with two different strains.[2] Although Cypriot health research group was dubbed the supposed new variant, "Deltacron".[3] Maria Van Kerkhove (head of W.H.O.'s COVID-19 Technical Leader), Richard Neher (head of Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and associate professor of University of Basel), and other scientists, who challenged this announcement, saying a lab mistake is a more probable explanation for Cyprus lab's finding.

At some point, a few people will be unlucky and they'll actually be infected or reinfected and killed by two different variants at the same time, and when two different variants are in a single cell replicating at the same time, and it is not only that two different variants can invade the same cell in everyone's body by some randomly events. However, there's a change that they genetic material, and that is called a "recombination event". When that happens, they can actually formed and merged a new hybrid variant.[4][5] In this case, it looks like that's happened more than once that there's a few different types of hybrid variant: Delta as the core of virus, which is more dangerous; and Omicron as a spike protein, which is more transmissible.

From the early summer of 2021 to the late summer of 2022, Kostrikis and his health research team in Cyprus are decided to start tracking the hybrid outbreak in real time when health experts uploaded the online databases, such as Worldometers and GISAID. However, COVID-19 Deltacron hybrid variant is likely more transmissible and has now spreading than Original, Alpha, Delta, Omicron, and other strains, which have caused a huge infection waves as a "variant of concern", especially circulated parts of North American region (including United States of America, Mexico, and Canada), European region (including U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland), Australia, New Zealand, and among others (including Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Jordan, Lebanon, and Qatar).[6] Deltacron hybrid variant is expected given that a large number of circulation, the intense number of circulation that we saw with both Delta and Omicron mutations, and given the sheer number of changes and is similar to Omicron, it was much easier for researchers, scientists, and public health professionals.[7][8]

"Deltacron" phenomenon is reported by Dr. Kostrikis, which is not related to "Deltacron" variant, reported by the World Health Organization on March 9, 2022.[9] However, as of result, Deltacron hybrid variant is now less severe disease and deaths than Original, Delta, and Omicron strains as much as of now.

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