Munir Iqbal

Professor Munir Iqbal is head of the Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) group at The Pirbright Institute and Visiting Professor at the Royal Veterinary College, London. Munir obtained Veterinary Medicine and MPhil degrees in Pakistan and a PhD in Biotechnology at Imperial College London in 1991. He worked as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool and the University of St Andrews, before joining the Institute in 1996. Currently, he is leading a number of research projects aimed to define the impact of evolutionary molecular changes on AIV antigenicity, pathogenicity and cross-species transmission and the development of new vaccines and diagnostics for better control of avian respiratory viruses (including avian infleunza, Newcastle, avian adenovirus, Avian metapneumoviruses... ).

Recently, his group has developed novel multivalent vaccines (viral vectored and subunit) for poultry viral diseases. The herpesvirus of turkey (HVT) and duck enteritis virus (DEV)-based live AIV vaccines provide life-long immunity to in ovo (in egg) vaccinated chickens against both AIV and Marek’s disease and to vaccinated ducks against both AIV and DEV respectively. The multivalent subunit vaccines produced in insect cells protects chickens from multiple avian diseases. He also developed passive immunization approach to protect poultry from AIV. His recent studies have identified antigenic epitopes on the haemagglutinin antigen of H9 and H7 AIV that induce protective immune responses, with implications for vaccine strain selection. Studies also identified host-restrictions factors that determine avian-origin influenza virus replication fitness in mammalian species. His group is developing novel easy-to-use aptamer-based diagnostic tests allowing rapid, sensitive and reliable differential diagnosis of avian respiratory viruses at the pen-side or point-of-care.