Dr Nagendra Singanallur Balasubramanian

Dr Nagendrakumar Singanallur was appointed as Research Scientist with the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in June 2011 and was assigned to work with the Meat and Livestock Australia funded, Foot-and-Mouth Disease Risk Management Project [FMDRMP Phase 1 (P.PSH.0558) and Phase 2 (P.PSH 0652)]. He started working on FMD since the year 2000 and has a vast experience on handling of live FMDV, molecular epidemiology, classical virology including identification of candidate vaccine strains, development and validation of diagnostic assays, immunology and vaccinology. He has strong evidence of leadership and team work across cultures. He has evidence of strong collaborations with the Pirbright Institute under the BBSRC-DIFID project (2010-2013) and FMD-ImproCon Vaccines & diagnosis project (2003-2006) and the European consortium of laboratories working on FMD under the DISCONVAC Project (2009-2013). Since joining CSIRO, he has planned, executed, and achieve the project aims and objectives and delivery of results with impact, on time and within budget specifications. True to the requirements of the project he has travelled extensively to overseas collaborating laboratories, worked away from home on long stays and executed the project both skilfully and effectively. His efforts have led to the conception of a new $8 million, 3-year project on FMD that receives funding from the Rural Research and Development for Profit, DAWR (RRnD4P-15-02-032) and Meat and Livestock Australia (P.PSH.0779).
Nagendra has developed an outstanding track record of scientific achievement in the field of FMD vaccine, molecular epidemiology and assay development for FMDV. As part of the project to evaluate the FMDV antigens in the Australian Vaccine Bank (AVB), he has led animal studies in overseas high containment facilities and established the efficacies of different vaccine stains in AVB. Aligned with FMDRMP, he has been instrumental in developing new challenge models for FMD in sheep and pigs along with scientists of the Plum Island Animal Disease Centre, USA. This method would revolutionise the way vaccines are tested in these species in the future. He has led a team of scientists to develop methods for the safe transport of FMD samples from remote areas. He has also lead a team of scientists to develop FMD diagnostic reagents and antigens using novel methods like ‘chimeric viruses’ and ‘virus-like particles’. Nagendra is highly proactive in promoting the importance of FMDRMP and has established lasting collaborations with laboratories in South East Asia (SEA). He represents CSIRO in the LabNet Meetings organised by the OIE-SEACFMD. He is involved in training and capacity building in the South East Asian countries like Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.