Mehnaz Qureshi

Mehnaz is currently working within Pirbright's Avian Influenza group, hoping to shed some more light on vaccine strategies by studying the antigenic structure of HA.

She obtained a BvetMed (DVM) from India followed by a Master’s degree in veterinary virology from Indian Veterinary Research Institute, India. Her research was in HPAI H5N1 Avian Influenza, carried out at National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases, India. Soon after she joined as research scholar in hospital based settings wherein she dealt with extra pulmonary TB in humans. Following this, she joined one of the leading UK-based microbiology testing laboratories as an analyst.

Mehnaz then joined The Pirbright Institute, where she has since been working with multiple groups. Mehnaz first joined the Non-Vesicular Reference Laboratory (NVRL) which operates under ISO 17025 accreditation as a key member to carry out ‘European Virus Archive goes global' (EVAg) project, as well as providing an essential diagnostic service for the detection of various viruses. Following which she worked with research services as a cell culturist. To further develop her skill set she has embarked on a new role of PhD studentship.

Besides translational research, Mehnaz is interested in working on zoonotic and emerging pathogens.