Profile: Professor Polly Roy
Professor Polly Roy from the Disease Control & Vector Biology Unit talks about her career and research
"I studied Botany in Presidency College, Calcutta and first took up Virology when I was awarded a fellowship to study at New York University. After graduating I moved to Rutgers working on RNA viruses and from there to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1976. There I began work on the virus that was to become the predominant target of my research, Bluetongue Virus. I moved to Oxford University in 1987 and joined the School in 2001.
My interest in Virology is grounded in the belief that fundamental knowledge of different aspects of a virus life cycle underpins the development of new approaches to diagnosis, control and prevention of disease for man and animals. With this in mind I have focused my work on a molecular dissection of Bluetongue virus (BTV) which mostly infects sheep but is also a model system for other members of the Reoviridae such as Rotaviruses in man. These studies have led into a number of distinct areas of virology; virus entry, virus assembly, the mechanism of RNA replication, the role of host factors in virus release and the virus induced immunity. These areas are important in themselves for both BTV and its related viruses but they also offer insights into other viral and cellular processes. For this reason BTV is set to remain a cornerstone of my research, but I am also looking forward to investigating the areas of cell biology that use of the virus has highlighted and to asking if there are commonly used by viruses or if BTV is particular in that respect.
My current interests are targeted towards understanding virus entry to and exit from infected cells for, in both of these areas, virus engagement with the cell is crucial to a successful outcome. Recently, we have isolated a number of cellular proteins, believed to be membrane trafficking proteins, which appear to be closely involved in transporting infectious viruses into the cells across the membrane as well as in cell to cell virus spread and the release of the mature progeny particles. Our data represent new and exciting findings for us where expertise of the School has played, and will continue to play, a seminal role. The excellent facilities for visualising proteins in the cell using confocal microscopy plays a major role as does the incredible expertise in insect cells where the replication of BTV is subtly different to that found in mammalian cells.
My focus on molecular and structural virology has provided opportunities in other human and animal viruses. Some interesting possibilities of exploitation have presented themselves from such work including: i) the development of non-replicative particulate structures as immunogen delivery systems to elicit humoral, cytotoxic and secretory immune responses; ii) the use of potentially innocuous viruses and non-replicative viral structures for gene therapy/gene delivery. As these areas develop I believe there will be ever increasing opportunities for the practical exploitation of our basic science approach to the control of infection and the manipulation of genes that impinge on the outcome disease."
