Director Info

Professor Digard is a Virologist whose career started at Cambridge University, with a PhD on influenza virus, followed by a postdoctoral stint at Harvard Medical School, where he studied the DNA polymerase of herpes simplex virus.

He then returned to Cambridge and the subject of influenza to start his own research group. He moved to the Roslin Institute in 2012, where he holds the Chair of Virology and is Deputy Director for Emergence & Impact.

His laboratory is interested in the molecular and cellular biology of how influenza and other viruses replicate, using this information to understand the basis of virus pathogenesis and host range, as well as for translational studies on antiviral drug development and virus control measures.

In recent years, the group has focused on three main areas: the cell biology of virus host range, the molecular and translational aspects of respiratory virus transmission, and in identifying novel virus gene products which affect virus pathogenicity.