Dr Abigail Hay

Originally from the Scottish Highlands, Abigail’s farming background has strongly influenced her research interests. She is passionate about investigating factors which impact the agricultural industry and how genetic diversity underpins the innate and adaptive immune response to infection. Abigail is currently researching the cattle antibody response to foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) vaccination with a specific focus on characterising the kinetics and epitopes of the antibody pool after vaccination through biolayer interferometry and surface plasmon resonance.

Abigail has been at The Pirbright Institute since 2018 when she moved from Scotland to undertake her PhD studies in conjunction with The University of Southampton. Her research focused on investigating ligands for diversified natural killer (NK) cell receptor families in cattle, particularly the killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR), and on characterising heterogeneity within the bovine NK cell population. Prior to this Abigail studied at the University of Aberdeen where she graduated with MSci Genetics (with Immunology) in 2018.

In addition to her research, Abigail has been an active STEM Ambassador since 2015 and thoroughly enjoys taking part in public engagement activities.

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