Dr Rory Fortes De Brito
Rory is a dedicated vaccinologist and immunologist with a passion for understanding how the immune system responds to disease and how that knowledge can drive vaccine development.
He studied Pharmacy at the Federal University of Ouro Preto, where he also completed his PhD. His doctoral research focused on developing peptide and chimera vaccines for visceral leishmaniasis, using immunoinformatics tools to design innovative approaches to an ongoing global health challenge.
On his first postdoc he led projects aimed at developing vaccines and studying immune responses to Chagas disease and leishmaniasis at the biological sciences research nucleus in Ouro Preto.
In 2021, Rory joined The Pirbright Institute as a postdoctoral scientist in the PRRS Immunology Group developing vectored vaccines against PRRSV. After that, he joined the European consortium the Horizon project “Reprodivac” helping to develop a broadly protective and next generation vaccines against PRRSV.
In 2024, Rory was promoted to senior postdoc at the Institute and more recently (2025) he was awarded the Pirbright Strategic Career Development Award (SCDA), his research aim is to understand PRRSV modulates the host immune response. Rory plans to deepen his research niche in molecular immunology, focusing on virus-host interactions and the crosstalk between innate and adaptive responses, to guide vaccine development.
