Mani Shailendra

Contribution to Science: My contribution to research involved both basic and translational aspect of science. My major contribution to research can be summarized in the following three topics: Development of Dengue subunit based vaccine candidate (2008-13): We engineered an envelope-based vaccine candidate that self-assembles into Virus like particles. We successfully developed a potential monovalent non-replicating, safe, efficacious and affordable subunit vaccine candidate against Dengue 2 virus. Identification of emerging viral pathogens (2013-2019): I worked extensively on emerging viral diseases. We investigated a zoonotic virus outbreak responsible for killing thousands of pigs in China. Our finding showed that the virus originated from the same region and genus of bats (horseshoe) as SARS-CoV. Our study highlighted the importance of identifying coronavirus diversity and distribution in bats to mitigate future outbreaks that could threaten livestock, public health and economic growth. Our team also found evidence for transmission of other bat-borne viruses to animals in different region of world. In addition, we also performed serological and in-vitro studies indicating the possibility of bats as transient host in life cycle of dengue or similar flaviviruses. We further investigated how bats remain as reservoir for many deadly viruses without showing any symptoms of these diseases. We demonstrated a dampened NLRP3-mediated inflammatory response in bat immune cells. This supports an enhanced innate immune tolerance rather than an enhanced antiviral defence. This study may contribute to our understanding of the role of inflammasome in disease tolerance in bats as reservoir hosts, in contrast to severe pathogenesis in spill-over hosts for many high-profile emerging viruses. Development of tools to aid public health measures: We developed a bead based multiplex serological assay during Zika outbreak capable of detecting Dengue and Zika infections from the clinical samples. The assay was validated using the controlled serum samples generated by infecting macaque with Dengue and Zika. The assay was utilised by a network of hospitals in Singapore and provided zika surveillance in the country by detecting presence of the virus specific antibodies in pregnant women population in Singapore. SARS-CoV2 pandemic preparedness: resource generation for aiding rapid vaccine development (2019-Present): As SARS-CoV2 virus pandemic hit India, we urgently required virus based serological assays to be established. Due to requirement of higher containment facility for virus culture, it was restricted to few institutions in India. As a research scientist at THSTI, I successfully established SARS-CoV2 virus culture and viral neutralization assays. The neutralization assay established by me is currently being offered as a service to different companies to evaluate vaccine candidates in India. I am also working on development of vaccine and antiviral therapies against SARS-CoV2.