FACULTY OF VETERINARY & ANIMAL SCIENCES, WBUAFS, MOHANPUR

Dr. Hemanta Kumar Maity

Assistant Professor, Department of Avian Sciences

BVSc (Kolkata) · MVSc (IVRI, Bareilly) · PhD (University of Reading, UK)

Working at the intersection of virology and vaccine engineering — building virus-like particle candidates against the diseases that move through poultry and pig populations.

Vaccine Development Virology Insect Cell Expression Virus-Like Particles

Mohanpur, West Bengal

Overview

A career built around one particle at a time

Dr. Maity's research sits in the space between structural virology and applied vaccinology. His doctoral work at the University of Reading, supported by a Felix International Fellowship, focused on stabilising recombinant empty capsids of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus expressed through the baculovirus system — work that set the direction for everything since: using insect-cell and virus-like particle platforms to design vaccine candidates for diseases that are difficult, expensive, or dangerous to grow as live virus.

That thread runs from his MVSc research on infectious bursal disease in chickens at IVRI, through postdoctoral work on Newcastle disease and porcine circovirus 2d, to his current position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Avian Sciences at WBUAFS, where he leads a national-mission project developing multiserotypic VLP vaccine candidates against porcine circovirus disease with ICAR–NRC on Pig and IIT Guwahati.

Education

Academic qualifications

2020

PhD, Animal Biotechnology

University of Reading, United Kingdom

Thesis: “Expression and optimization of stability recombinant empty capsids of type O Bangkok isolate of Foot and Mouth Disease Virus in baculovirus expression system.” Supervisor: Prof. Ian M. Jones, Department of Biological Sciences.

2014

MVSc, Animal Biotechnology

Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly

85%

2012

BVSc & AH, Veterinary Science

West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Kolkata

74%

Experience

Positions held

Current

Assistant Professor, Department of Avian Sciences

West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Mohanpur

2014–2015

Veterinary Officer

Centre for Stem Cell Research, CMC Vellore

2014

Teaching Assistant

College of Veterinary Science, GB Pant University of Agriculture, India

Honors

Fellowships, awards & recognitions

2025

2nd Best Poster Award

XIX Annual Convention of the Indian Society of Animal Genetics & Breeding (ISAGB) — “Precision Animal Breeding through Genomics, AI and Machine Learning”

2018

Travel Award

37th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology (ASV), University of Maryland

2018

Travel Award

Europic 2018, Egmond aan Zee, the Netherlands

2018

Travel Award

Microbiology Society Annual Conference, ICC Birmingham, UK

2015

Felix International Fellowship for PhD

Felix Trust, UK

2012

ICAR–JRF

Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Invited talks

2025

Keynote — Advances in Foot and Mouth Disease Control: Innovations in Vaccination & Immunization

International Scientific Conference on Sustainability (IVMC), College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles

12 publications, in year-wise descending order.

Development and evaluation of a virus-like particle based vaccine candidate against Indian isolate of porcine circovirus 2d in pig Corresponding Author

Deb, R., Maity, H.K., Samanta, K., Madhanmohan, M., Sengar, G.S., Pegu, S., Kar, I., Parthiban, S., Khulape, S.A., Das, P.J., Rajkhowa, S., Gupta, V.K. · Microbial Pathogenesis, Vol. 219 · IF 3.9 · 2026

Expression profile of MHC class II trans-activator gene in pig immunized with recombinant virus-like particles encoding porcine circovirus 2d Co-Author

Varay, L., Deb, R., Maity, H.K., Sengar, G.S., Sandilya, P.B., Das, P.J., Pegu, S.R., Rai, V., Deka, N.J., Das, R., Rajkhowa, S., Gupta, V.K. · Microbial Pathogenesis, Vol. 217 · IF 3.9 · 2026

A bovine pulmosphere model and multiomics reveal early host response signature in tuberculosis Co-Author

Bhaskar, V., Kumar, R., Praharaj, M.R., Gandham, S., Maity, H.K., Sarkar, U., Dey, B. · Communications Biology, 8, 559 · IF 6.5 · 2025

Transcriptomic insights into Mycobacterium orygis infection-associated pulmonary granulomas reveal multicellular immune networks and tuberculosis biomarkers in cattle Co-Author

Kumar, R., Gandham, S., Bhaskar, V., Praharaj, M.R., Maity, H.K., Sarkar, U., Dey, B. · Veterinary Quarterly, 45(1), 1–19 · IF 5.6 · 2025

Transcriptome profiling in an in vitro peripheral blood mononuclear cell Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection model reveals breed-specific immune gene signatures potentially associated with tuberculosis susceptibility in cattle Co-Author

Kumar, R., Gandham, S., Maity, H.K., Sarkar, U., Dey, B. · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, Vol. 306 · IF 7.7 · 2025

Revisiting Porcine Circovirus Infection: Recent Insights and Its Significance in the Piggery Sector First Author

Maity, H.K., Samanta, K., Deb, R., Gupta, V.K. · Vaccines, 11(8) · IF 7.8 · 2023

Divergent proinflammatory immune responses associated with the differential susceptibility of cattle breeds to tuberculosis Co-Author

Kumar, R., Gandham, S., Rana, A., Maity, H.K., Sarkar, U., Dey, B. · Frontiers in Immunology, Vol. 14 · IF 7.3 · 2023

Evaluation of a fusion gene-based DNA prime-protein boost vaccination strategy against Newcastle disease virus Co-Author

Khulape, S.A., Maity, H.K., Pathak, D.C., Ramamurthy, N., Ramakrishnan, S., Chellappa, M.M., Dey, S. · Tropical Animal Health and Production, Vol. 51 · IF 1.7 · 2019

Universal detection of foot and mouth disease virus based on the conserved VP0 protein Co-Author

Loureiro, S., Porta, C., Maity, H.K., Bagno, F.F., Kotecha, A., Fry, E., Stuart, D.I., Hoenemann, H., Serrano, A., Charleston, B., Jones, I.M. · Wellcome Open Research, Vol. 3 · 2018

Protective efficacy of a DNA vaccine construct encoding the VP2 gene of infectious bursal disease and a truncated HSP70 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in chickens First Author

Maity, H.K., Dey, S., Mohan, C.M., Khulape, S.A., Pathak, D.C., Vakharia, V.N. · Vaccine, Vol. 33 · IF 5.5 · 2015

Antigenic validation of recombinant hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein of Newcastle disease virus expressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Co-Author

Khulape, S.A., Maity, H.K., Pathak, D.C., Mohan, C.M., Dey, S. · Acta Virologica, Vol. 59 · IF 1.8 · 2015

Development and evaluation of a Salmonella typhimurium flagellin based chimeric DNA vaccine against infectious bursal disease of poultry Co-Author

Deb, R., Dey, S., Mohan, C.M., Gaikwad, S., Kamble, N., Khulape, S.A., Gupta, S.K., Maity, H.K., Pathak, D.C. · Research in Veterinary Science, Vol. 102 · IF 2.4 · 2015

Patent

Filed intellectual property

Virus-like particles and antibodies against Indian isolate of Porcine circovirus 2d

ApplicantsHemanta Kumar Maity, Rajib Deb, Gyanendra Singh Sengar, Seema Rani Pegu, Swaraj Rajkhowa, Juwar Doley, Aditya Pratap Acharya, Pranab Jyoti Das, Vivek Kumar Gupta

CountryIndia

StatusComplete specification submitted

Projects

Research projects

Development of multiserotypic virus-like particle based vaccine candidates against porcine circovirus disease of pig in India

RolePrincipal Investigator

FundingNational Livestock Mission (NLM), DAHD, Govt. of India · ₹1,23,00,000

CollaboratorsICAR–NRC on Pig; IIT Guwahati

Duration2024–2027

Ongoing

Development of a virus-like particle based vaccine against Indian isolate of porcine circovirus

RolePrincipal Investigator

FundingDBT, Govt. of India · ₹77,37,000

CollaboratorsICAR–NRC on Pig, Assam

Duration2021–2025

Completed

A transcriptional approach to identify biomarkers of susceptibility

RoleCo-Principal Investigator

FundingDBT, Govt. of India · ₹76,15,000

CollaboratorsNIAB, Hyderabad

Duration2020–2023

Completed

Writing

Books, chapters & reports

Production of Virus-like Particles Using the Baculovirus Expression System and Their Application in Vaccines and Viral Disease Diagnosis

Maity, H.K., Deb, R., Lyons, S., Jones, I.M. · Springer Protocols Handbooks, Humana, New York · 2022

Infectious bursal disease virus in chickens: prevalence, impact, and management strategies

Dey, S., Pathak, D.C., Ramamurthy, N., Maity, H.K., Chellappa, M.M. · Veterinary Medicine (Auckland): Dove Press · 2019

Heat Shock Protein as an Adjuvant in Veterinary Vaccines

Dey, S., Mohan, C.M., Ramakrishnan, S., Maity, H.K., Yadav, K., Pathak, D.C., Debnath, A. · Springer, Cham · 2018

Get in touch

Department of Avian Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, West Bengal University of Animal & Fishery Sciences, Mohanpur Campus, West Bengal, India — 741252

dr.hemanta87@gmail.com +91 90738 41838