My journey with unseen creatures
Viruses infect all forms of life including humans, plants, animals, fungi, insects, algae,
archaea, bacteria, and even other viruses.
My journey with viruses started during my Master of Science (Hons) research in 1988.
Since then, I played with these unseen creatures during my PhD (1994-1999)
at the University of Adelaide, Australia, my first postdoctoral fellowship in Japan
followed by a second postdoctoral fellowship in Australia, and finally my third
postdoctoral fellowship at in USA. My work on viruses continued when I became
a faculty member in 2007 at the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Since 1988-2007, I mainly worked with viruses infecting plants. However, at the
University of Tulsa, my interest extended to viruses that infect humans and animals,
so I started to develop and offer two courses: "Introduction of Virology" and
"Biology of Cancer", at the undergraduate and graduate level, which covers human
and animals viruses like HIV, Hepatitis, Herpes, Smallpox, Influenza, and cancer causing
viruses.
US Fullbright Fellow
During 2017, I earned a US Fulbright fellowship and worked on mycoviruses (viruses infecting fungi) at the University of Okayama, Japan. Now, my lab research projects are also focused on viruses infecting fungi.