Developing resilience to avian influenza virus
Dr Debolina Majumdar
Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) represents a significant threat to domestic poultry and can result in 100% mortality in susceptible species. HPAIVs continue to evolve in nature and spread globally causing millions of poultry deaths. Moreover, HPAIVs are zoonotic pathogens with a pandemic potential, and controlling the disease in intensively farmed poultry such as chicken is important for preventing human infection.
The aim of this project is to improve resilience to HPAIV in commercial poultry, helping to reduce outbreaks.
In this project I will be using genome-wide knockout screen to identify host genes that are essential for influenza infection and growth. Once these host genes are identified the goal is to investigate if these can be modified to help restrict the spread of influenza in poultry.
The goal of the project is to identify strategies that can lead to the effective virus inhibition in bird species
Project lead: Dr Debolina Majumdar