A graphic with Pablo Murcia framed in the centre in front of a faded CVR building

The Centre for Virus Research's Pablo Murcia, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine who began working at the University of Glasgow in 2011, has been promoted to Professor of Integrative Virology.

Graduating as a DVM from the University of Buenos Aires in 1998, Pablo went on to gain an MSc in Animal Health from the same institution in 2002, in which he studied an outbreak of tumours in cows in Patagonia.

From there his interest in oncogenic viruses - those that cause tumours - developed, leading to a PhD at the University of Georgia with Massimo Palmarini in which he studied Jaagsiekte Sheep Retrovirus (JSRV), a virus that causes lung tumours in sheep.

When Professor Palmarini moved to the University of Glasgow, Pablo followed suit and transferred his PhD to Glasgow, where he gained his doctorate degree in 2007.

After four years at the University of Cambridge, where he completed a postdoc and then obtained a Wellcome Trust Veterinary Postdoctoral Fellowship, he returned to UofG to become a Principal Investigator at the CVR.

At the end of his fellowship in 2012, Pablo became a lecturer and then continued that career progression as a senior lecturer in 2016 and now, in 2020, as a professor.

He said: "I am delighted with the promotion. Holding a Professorship from the University of Glasgow - one of the best universities in the UK - is a hallmark in anyone's career but even more special for me, as I did my PhD here.

"While a promotion is usually considered a personal achievement, I think that I could not have obtained it without the hard work of present and past members of my group, as well as the support and advice of colleagues."

Professor Murcia's Research Group's main research interest is to understand the molecular and evolutionary mechanisms that underpin viral host switching and viral emergence.


First published: 5 August 2020