Dr Maitreyi Shivkumar

Dr Maitreyi Shivkumar is a Senior Lecturer in Molecular Biology in the School of Pharmacy at De Montfort University. Her research interests are in understanding host-pathogen interactions, with a focus on virology.

She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge on host entry and dissemination of herpesviruses in mouse models. Following this, she was a post-doc at University College London studying HIV-1 spread between T cells, before joining De Montfort University in 2019.

• Infectious Diseases Research Group (IDRG)
• Leicester Institute of Pharmaceutical Innovation (LIPI)

For full list of research outputs: ORCID, DORA

• Dean B, Cooper G, Shivkumar M*, & Snape TJ* (2023) Hydroxy-xanthones as promising antiviral agents: Synthesis and biological evaluation against human coronavirus OC43. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry. [Journal]

• Reuschl AK, Mesner D*, Shivkumar M*, et al. (2022) HIV-1 Vpr drives tissue residency during selective infectino of resting memory T cells. Cell Reports. [Journal]

• Owen L, Laird K, & Shivkumar M (2022) Antiviral plan-derived natural products to combat RNA viruses: Targets throughout the viral life cycle. Letters in Applied Microbiology. [Journal] 

• Cordiero AS*, Patil-Sen Y*, Shivkumar M*, et al. (2021) Nanovaccine delivery approaches and advanced delivery systems for the prevention of viral infections: From development to clinical application. Pharmaceutics, 13(12): 2091 [Journal] 

• Owen L, Shivkumar M, Cross RBM, & Laird K (2021) Porous surfaces: stability and recovery of coronaviruses. Interface Focus, 12: 20210039 [Journal]

• Shivkumar M, Adkin P, Owen L, & Laird K (2021) Investigation of the stability and risks of fomite transmission of human coronavirus OC43 on leather. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 368(16):fnab112 [Journal] 

• Owen L, Shivkumar M, & Laird K (2021) The stability of model human coronaviruses on textiles in the environment and during health care laundering. mSphere, 6: e00316-21 [Journal] 

• Owen L, Laird K, & Shivkumar M (2021) The effect of climbing chalk powder on the infectivity of human coronavirus OC43. Letters in Applied Microbiology, 72(6): 725-729 [Journal]

• Len ACL, Starling S, Shivkumar M, & Jolly C (2017) HIV-1 Activates T Cell Signaling Independently of Antigen to Drive Viral Spread. Cell Reports, 18(4): 1062-1074. [Journal]

• Shivkumar M, Lawler C, Milho R, & Stevenson PG (2016) Herpes simplex virus 1 interaction with myeloid cells in vivo. Journal of Virology, 90: 8661–8672 [Journal]

• Nicoll MP, Hann W, Shivkumar M, et al. (2016) The HSV1 Latency-Associated Transcript Functions to Repress Latent Phase Lytic Gene Expression and Suppress Virus Reactivation from Latently Infected Neurons. PLoS Pathogens, 12(4): e1005539 [Journal]

• Shivkumar M, Milho R, May JS, et al. (2013) Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Targets the Murine Olfactory Neuroepithelium for Host Entry. Journal of Virology, 87(19): 10477-10488 [Journal]

• Antiviral drug discovery
• Host-pathogen interactions
• HIV-1 and T cell immunology
• Environmental stability and disinfection of coronaviruses

• Microbiology
• Virology
• Immunity and Immunology
• Vaccine Immunology
• Gene therapy
• Cancer

• MRes (Masters by Research) 
• PhD students

• MBiochem (Hons) Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry (2012, University of Oxford)
• Ph.D. in Viral Pathology (2016, University of Cambridge) 
• Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (2021, De Montfort University)

• Pharmacy MPharm
• Pharmaceutical Sciences BSc
• Pharmaceutical Biotechnology MSc
• Quality by Design MSc

• Editorial Board Member: The Biochemist magazine, Biochemical Society (May 2022 - present)

• Biochemical Society (2008)
• Microbiology Society (2012)
• American Society of Virology (2015)
• British Society of Immunology (2018)
• Fellow of Higher Education Academy FHEA (2021)

• Gemma Cooper (Ph.D., 1st supervisor)
• Brandon Moulds (Ph.D., 1st supervisor)
• Abdelrhman Moustafa (Ph.D., 2nd supervisor)
• Dolgormaa Janchivlamdan (Ph.D., 2nd supervisor)
• Jake Dunlop (Ph.D., 2nd supervisor)
• Alisher Djumaev (Ph.D., 2nd supervisor)
• Manuela Segorean (M.Res., 2nd supervisor)

For enquiries about M.Res. and Ph.D. projects, contact maitreyi.shivkumar@dmu.ac.uk

• Why a vaccine can provide better immunity than an actual infection, The Conversation, 14 Sep 20 [Article] 
• Coronavirus: What happens when a person is simultaneously infected with two variants? The Conversation, 3 Mar 21 [Article] 

• Aspire To: A children's book of real-life representative role-models, by Jane Hearst | @AspireTo_book

• Escape Lab: Fight the virus, an interactive activity developed for and run at the British Science Festival, Leicester, September 2022
• Lab Challenge: Fight the virus, an interactive workshop run at the Oxford Science and Ideas IF Festival, Oxford, October 2023