Dr Helena Maier

Helena studied for her BSc in Virology at University of Warwick followed by a DPhil in Molecular Virology at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, University of Oxford. After completing her studies, Helena joined The Pirbright Institute as a post-doctoral researcher to study molecular virus-host interactions of the avian coronavirus, infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) and has now become an independent Institute fellow in Nidovirus-cell interactions. Helena has studied the involvement of cellular autophagy (destruction of cellular components) in virus replication in both avian and mammalian cells, producing the first available reagents to study autophagy signalling in an avian system.

In addition, Helena characterised how IBV modifies cellular membranes to create structures required for assembly of viral replication transcription complexes (a step that is critical for viral replication). Using electron tomography to obtain 3D images, she identified novel structures not previously identified in coronavirus infected cells. More recently, Helena has continued to study how IBV manipulates cell membranes and induces structures for virus replication. She has also begun to incorporate this research into viral interaction with other cellular pathways including programmed cell death, signalling using the molecule interferon and protein complexes involved in budding (ESCRT).

In addition to her research, Helena plays a role in student supervision, supervising 2 PhD students, and enjoys being a member of the Athena SWAN and academic committees.