Dr Julian Seago

Julian obtained his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford in 2001, where he used D. melanogaster (a species of fly) as a model organism to study components of the protein complex called the exosome that mediates RNA degradation. After finishing a short post-doctoral position at Oxford working on a transcription factor of C. elegans (a type of threadworm), he continued to characterise exosome proteins in Japan as a Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences (JSPS) Postdoctoral Fellow.

Upon returning to the UK, Julian worked on snake disintegrins (venom proteins) at St. Thomas’ Hospital before joining the research team at The Pirbright Institute in 2004. At the Institute his work has focused on two major animal pathogens, classical swine fever virus (CSFV) and foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). He is particularly interested in characterising the mechanisms used by CSFV viral proteins to evade the host’s innate immune responses and the use of reverse genetics to manipulate the FMDV genome to investigate the virus life cycle and to produce better vaccines.