Dr Naveen Kumar appointed director of ICMR-NIV

Dr. Kumar is a noted virologist who has made some basic and fundamental contributions in the area of virus-host interaction.

Dr Naveen Kumar. (Express)

Dr Naveen Kumar has been appointed as the director of the Indian Council of Medical Research- National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV). He will take charge in two weeks, said top ICMR officials.

Currently, Dr Sheela Godbole, director of ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute (ICMR-NARI), is officiating as director in-charge at the country’s apex virology institute. She held the additional charge for the last 15-16 months.

Dr Naveen Kumar, who is the head of the National Centre for Veterinary Type Cultures, ICAR-NRC on Equines, Hisar ,was the first to isolate the lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV) in India and developed India’s first lumpy skin disease vaccine (Lumpi-ProVacInd), which has been commercialized and the technology has been transferred to at least four major vaccine manufacturers in India.

Story continues below this ad

He also isolated wild-type, Delta, and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2 from human patients and developed ANCOVAX, a vaccine to prevent coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection in animals. India became the third country after the USA and Russia to develop the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine for animals.

Dr. Kumar is a noted virologist who has made some basic and fundamental contributions in the area of virus-host interaction. He has also been a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholar at the Department of Diagnostic Virology, Friedrich Loeffler Institute, Insel-Riems, Germany, where he studied the persistence of the foot and mouth disease virus in cattle.

He was also a postdoc fellow at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, USA, where he worked on understanding the interactions of influenza virus with host cell signaling pathways, besides developing a reverse genetics system and animal model for Pichinde virus, a model virus to study the pathogenesis of Lassa hemorrhagic fever virus. He has also been a visiting fellow at the Department of Infection and Pathway Medicine, Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh, UK.

Dr Kumar hails from Alwar in Rajasthan and is the recipient of several awards, such as the Award of Excellence in Agriculture Research for the development and commercialization of India’s first LSD vaccine (Lumpi-ProVacInd) (2023); the India Animal Health Awards 2023 (Young Scientist) for exemplary contribution to the growth and development of animal health in India (2023); the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, UK (2016); Societal Innovation.

Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories