Professor Celia Abolnik holds the South African National Research Foundation’s Research Chair in Poultry Health and Production. She is based at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Veterinary Science, which is currently the only veterinary school in the country. Her doctoral degree, awarded in 2007, focused on the molecular epidemiology of avian influenza and Newcastle disease, and today she is internationally recognised as a sub-regional expert in these diseases, having published more than 90 papers in scientific journals on these viruses in chickens, ostriches and pigeons, as well as work on infectious bronchitis and mycoplasmosis in poultry. Her research expertise encompasses molecular epidemiology, genomics, host pathogenicity studies, and serological and molecular diagnostic test development, but her latest passion is the development and efficacy testing of recombinant tobacco plant-expressed virus-like particle vaccines.