Dr. Anan Jongkaewwattana

Anan Jongkaewwattana obtained his doctoral degree in Microbiology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA in 2005 before starting his research career at BIOTEC. He was granted an opportunity to join, as a post-doctoral fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, USA to work on the technology of reverse genetics of influenza A virus in 2006. Soon after Anan completed his fellowship, he started his independent research group working on influenza virus biology. A few years later, his group was expanded to the ‘Virology and Cell Technology Laboratory’ and Anan has been looking after this Laboratory for almost ten years. In 2016, he is promoted to act as a research unit director of a newly established research unit, Virology and Antibody Technology Unit.   Anan is well recognized as an expert in the field of molecular virology especially in the area of reverse genetics technology development of RNA viruses at both national and international levels. He established reverse genetics of influenza Aviruses in Thailand and successfully developed prototyped H5N1 and H5N3 vaccines. In 2009, the swine-origin influenza virus (H1N1) pandemic erupted in Mexico and rapidly spread to Thailand, his team was the first group in the country who successfully constructed the vaccine against pandemic H1N1 within a few weeks after obtaining the genetic materials of the parental virus.