Journal of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry

Dr. Renukaradhya J. Gourapura interests include understanding mucosal immunology in the respiratory tract of pigs and other species of food animals, host-pathogen interactions and pathogenesis, identification of viral immune evasion mechanisms and development of mucosal vaccines. Elucidate mucosal immune evasion mechanisms of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus and influenza virus. He is involved in identification of potential mucosal candidate adjuvants of bacterial origin and other delivery methods to develop novel mucosal vaccines against infectious diseases of food animals. To develop a suitable mucosal killed viral vaccine delivery system, he is evaluating the biodegradable and biocompatible nanotechnology based approach in the respiratory tract of pigs. In addition, recently he discovered invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells in pigs and in particular in their lungs. iNKT cell has been identified as a potent immune potentiator capable of inducing heterologous protection to influenza virus in murine models. Currently, he is evaluating the methods to induce NKT cell-mediated cross-protective immunity to a killed swine influenza virus vaccine in pigs.