Dr Ajai Lawrence D'Silva

Dr Ajai Dsilva is a Veterinary Biotechnologist with specialised expertise in molecular, serological, recombinant DNA and cell culture techniques, particularly in high-security biocontainment environments.

He completed his Veterinary degree from the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, Kerala, India followed by a Masters and Ph.D. in Animal Biotechnology from ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, UP, India.

He has worked with avian influenza virus, Newcastle disease virus, and porcine circovirus type 2 in high-security laboratory settings. He gained his experience in developing homologous and heterologous vaccine candidates using viral vectors such as Newcastle disease virus strains with its efficacy studies in mice models. 

He further developed his research experience at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, USA, where, for two years, he focused on functional studies of long noncoding RNAs in response to viral infections and autoimmune skin disease conditions such as Pemphigus. His research aimed to unveil host factors and molecular mechanisms important in disease outcomes. 

Ajai has joined the NVRL team at The Pirbright Institute, where, also working with the Applied Epidemiology group, he will develop molecular diagnostic techniques to detect Lumpy skin disease (LSD) virus under field conditions of India, with particular emphasis on differentiating between vaccinated and Infected domestic animals. This project builds on his prior experience in Virology and will broaden his technical and computational skills in the field of Veterinary diagnostics.