Dr. Priya Abraham
Senior Professor
MD, PhD. FRCPath
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2873-9101
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/priya-abraham-1b3800270
Department: Clinical Virology
Department Phone No: +91-0416-2283455
Location: Christian Medical College, Main campus, Ida Scudder Road, Vellore, India
Skills and Expertise
Dr. Priya Abraham’s expertise spans vaccine evaluation, assay development, and viral diagnostics. She evaluated India’s first indigenous HBV vaccine, worked on modified HBV vaccination schedules for immunosuppressed persons, and validated several molecular and antibody-based assays for the Drugs Controller of India. She validated the use of dried-blood spots for serological and molecular diagnosis of HCV infection for screening hard-to-reach populations, was part of the Indian task-force to first study HPV molecular epidemiology in India, led the ICMR-NIV team to develop India’s indigenous COVID vaccine (Covaxin), and has worked on self-sampling to enhance cervical cancer screening in India. Her past affiliations include serving as Director of ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, WHO Technical Working Group Member for Hepatitis B and HIV, WHO Consultant for Hepatitis Testing Guidelines in Myanmar and Hepatitis/HIV & STI Guidelines in Sri Lanka, Member of the Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition, and Member of the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research. Currently, she serves as Chairperson of the Technical Expert Committee for Vaccine Research Development & New Drug Development (DBT, Government of India), and is a member of the BIRAC Apex Committee, WHO’s Regional Validation Committee on Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV, Syphilis and Hepatitis B in South-East Asia, the National Verification Committee for Measles and Rubella Elimination, and the ICMR Expert Group for syndromic surveillance. She also serves as Advisory Member to CHRONOS (IARC). Her research has been funded by ICMR, DBT, NIH-DBT, NIH-ICMR, WHO, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Publications
1. Burdier FR, Bolio A, Abraham P, Pimple S, Franco EL, Pempa P, Poljak M, Gultekin M, Kjær SK, Waheed DE, Vorsters A. Case studies on the progress of cervical cancer screening programs in Bhutan, India, and Türkiye.Vaccine. 2024 Jul 11;42 Suppl 2:S49-S53. doi: 10.1016/j.Vaccine.2024.03.012. 2. Shete AM, Yadav PD, Kumar A, Patil S, Patil DY Joshi Y , Majumdar T, Vineet Relhan, Sahay RR , Vasu M, Gawande P, Verma A, Kumar A, Dhakad S , Krishnan AB , Chenayil S, Kumar S , Abraham P. Genome characterization of monkeypox cases detected in India: Identification of three sub clusters among A.2 lineage. J Infect 2023 Jan;86(1):66-117 doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2022.09.024. Epub 2022 Sep 28. 3. Grant R, Sacks JA, Abraham P, et al. When to update COVID-19 vaccine composition. Nature Medicine 2023;29:776-780. 4. Ella R, Reddy S, Blackwelder W, Potdar V, Yadav P, Sarangi V, Aileni VK, Kanungo S, Rai S, Reddy P, Verma S, Singh C, Redkar S, Mohapatra S, Pandey A, Ranganadin P, Gumashta R, Multani M, Mohammad S, Bhatt P, Kumari L, Sapkal G, Gupta N, Abraham P, Panda S, Prasad S, Bhargava B, Ella K, Vadrevu KM; COVAXIN Study Group. Efficacy, safety, and lot-to-lot immunogenicity of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (BBV152): interim results of a randomised, double-blind, controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet.2021Dec 11;398(10317):2173-84. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02000-6. PMID: 34774196. 5. Ella R, Reddy S, Jogdand H, Sarangi V, Ganneru B, Prasad S, Das D, Raju D, Praturi U, Sapkal G, Yadav P, Reddy P, Verma S, Singh C, Redkar SV, Gillurkar CS, Kushwaha JS, Mohapatra S, Bhate A, Rai S, Panda S, Abraham P, Gupta N, Ella K, Bhargava B, Vadrevu KM. Safety and immunogenicity of an inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, BBV152: interim results from a double-blind, randomised, multicentre, phase 2 trial, and 3-month follow-up of a double-blind, randomised phase 1 trial. Lancet Infect Dis. 2021 Jul;21(7):950-961.