Dr. Yongxiu Yao is head of the Viral Oncogenesis group and the WOAH Marek’s Disease Virus Reference Laboratory at The Pirbright Institute. Her major interest is in the host-virus interactions to unravel the molecular mechanisms of tumour formation by avian oncogenic viruses. Her current research has focused on the application of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing for studying viral pathogenesis and developing recombinant vaccine. The publication of several papers from her group on HVT recombinant vaccine development has attracted several industry funded projects on recombinant herpesvirus vectored vaccine development. Some of the vaccine candidates are at different stages of commercialization.