Prof Venugopal Nair OBE

Scientist Emeritus

Fields of expertise: Avian Immunology, Molecular Virology, Viral Diseases

Venugopal Nair is Scientist Emeritus in Viral Oncogenesis and Vaccine Research at The Pirbright Institute.

After 6 years postdoctoral research initially at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and later at the Institute of Virology, Oxford, Venugopal joined The Pirbright Institute in 1994 to carry out research on avian oncogenic viruses. As the Head of the Avian Viral Diseases Programme during 2010-17, he led the Institute’s programme of research on avian virology and immunology. He went on to serve as Head of Pirbright’s Viral Oncogenesis group until March 2022, when he was made Scientist Emeritus.

As the Head of the Viral Oncogenesis group, Prof. Nair carried out extensive research into the molecular mechanisms of virus-induced cancers. His research focus includes efforts to gain insights into the viral gene functions and their interactions with the host cell in driving neoplastic transformation to become cancer.

He has carried out extensive analysis of the dynamic changes of virus-induced cancer cells (looking at epigenomes, non-coding RNAs, transcriptomes and the proteomes) to develop an integrated profile of the molecular events in neoplastic transformation and make use of the advanced genome editing tools to dissect the molecular pathways in cancer. His research interests on viral diversity and evolution of virulence has demonstrated the potential role of vaccines in driving virulence.

He has published a number of scientific papers and book chapters, and his contributions to avian disease research were recognised through the admittance to the World Veterinary Poultry Association Hall of Honour (2013), and OBE in the New Year’s Honours list (2015). Prof. Nair is the recipient of a 5-year Royal Society International Professorship for collaborative research with Seoul National University for developing innovative control methods against avian diseases.

Prof. Nair also holds Visiting Professorship positions at Oxford University Department of Zoology and Imperial College London. He is also a Jenner Investigator and is a board member of the Jenner Vaccine Foundation at Oxford.