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Prof Polly Roy

Professor of Virology

United Kingdom

Polly Roy is a Professor of Virology in the Department of Infection Biology within the Infectious and Tropical Diseases (ITD) Faculty at LSHTM. She received her PhD in Molecular Virology from New York University/Columbia University Medical School, and continued to study RNA virology as a 3-year postdoc at the Waksman Institute, Rutgers University. She then moved to the University of Alabama, Birmingham USA, where she established her own laboratory and became a Full Professor, still working on different RNA viruses funded by multiple US grants. After this, she came to the University of Oxford, UK through a senior International Fogarty fellowship, where she gradually developed a second virology lab, whilst maintaining her research lab at UAB until 2005. In 2001, she moved as Virology Professor to LSHTM, where she continues to lead a large group of researchers.

For the last three decades, the predominant subject of Roy’s work, although not exclusively, has been the Bluetongue Virus (BTV), a complex layered virus that is a member of the Reoviridae family. Roy has made significant contributions to understanding the basic molecular and structural biology, atomic structure, mechanisms of virus entry, genome synthesis, RNA packaging, capsid assembly, egress and cell-to cell transmission of these viruses. Her multi-disciplinary approach and comprehensive research coverage has led to the successful development of improved diagnostic assays, more efficacious VLP vaccines (first in the field in 1990), alternative Entry Competent Replication Abortive vaccine (ECRA) based on reverse genetics for BTV and African Horse sickness viruses (AHSV), and alternative therapeutic possibilities in addition to the fundamental scientific advance discovered.

Roy’s work has been recognised around the world and she has received many awards including: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Virus Research; Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences; Indian Science Congress General President’s Gold medal, awarded by the Prime Minister of India; and, Finalist of Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) ‘Innovator of the Year’ Award.

The data generated through Roy’s research has resulted in over 380 publications, including: articles in high impact journals, numerous invited reviews, and book chapters in Fields Virology series and Encyclopaedia of Virology series. She is contributor and editor of several virology books.

Affiliations

Department of Infection Biology
Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases

Centres

Vaccine Centre

Teaching

Professor Roy has been instrumental in the successful development of the Virology section of the MSc Medical Microbiology Course.

Research

Ongoing projects:

• Molecular and structural biology of orbiviruses

• Virus entry mechanism and replication

• Host-virus interaction and virus egress

• RNA packaging of segmented genome

• Multivalent novel vaccines

Post-Graduate & Post-Doctoral Research Associates & Fellows:

Hannah Arnold, MSc

Sara Bisset, PhD

Andrew Davies, MSc

Dongsheng Luo, PhD

Juyeon Park, MSc

Shah Kamranur Rahman, PhD

Po-Yu Sung, PhD

Ho-Him Wong, PhD

Weining Wu, PhD

Juyeon Park, MSc

Collaborations

Professor Roy collaborates with a wide range of scientists and institutions around the world, including the UK, US, Japan, China, and European countries (France, Germany and Spain).

Research Area
Vaccines
Biochemistry
Cell biology
Microbiology
Molecular biology
Vaccinology
Virology
Disease and Health Conditions
Bluetongue virus
Diarrhoeal diseases
Zoonoses
Vector borne diseases
Country
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
Canada
China
Cuba
France
Germany
Greece
India
Italy
Japan
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Netherlands
Portugal
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
United Kingdom
United States
Region
Euro area
North America

Selected Publications

A multidisciplinary approach to the identification of the protein-RNA connectome in double-stranded RNA virus capsids.
Sung, P-Y; Zhou, Y; Kao, CC; Aburigh, AA; Routh, A; ROY, P;
2023
Nucleic acids research
Orbiviruses
ROY, P;
2022
Fields Virology: RNA Viruses
In situ structures of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase inside bluetongue virus before and after uncoating.
He, Y; Shivakoti, S; Ding, K; Cui, Y; ROY, P; Zhou, ZH;
2019
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
In situ structures of rotavirus polymerase in action and mechanism of mRNA transcription and release.
Ding, K; Celma, CC; Zhang, X; Chang, T; Shen, W; Atanasov, I; ROY, P; Zhou, ZH;
2019
Nature communications
Atomic structure of the translation regulatory protein NS1 of bluetongue virus
KERVIEL, A; Ge, P; Lai, M; Jih, J; Boyce, M; Zhang, X; Zhou, H; ROY, P;
2019
Nature Microbiology
Dynamic network approach for the modelling of genomic sub-complexes in multi-segmented viruses.
ALSHAIKHAHMED, K; Leonov, G; SUNG, P-Y; Bingham, RJ; Twarock, R; ROY, P;
2018
Nucleic acids research
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