Othmar Engelhardt Dr nat techn

Dr. Othmar Engelhardt is a Principal Scientist in the Division of Virology of the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control. Othmar received a doctorate degree from the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Working at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA, the University of Freiburg, Germany, and the University of Oxford, UK, he has been involved in research into various aspects of influenza virus and other negative-strand RNA viruses.

Othmar’s current research interests include the improvement of growth and yield of candidate influenza vaccine viruses, the development, and assessment of new assays for the standardization of influenza vaccines, the standardization of serological assays for influenza virus, and the use of in vivo models in vaccine evaluation. He was part of the team at NIBSC that produced candidate vaccine viruses in response to the emergence of the new pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus.

Othmar is involved in various World Health Organisation (WHO) projects; this includes seasonal and pandemic influenza strain selection where NIBSC plays an important role as one of the four WHO Essential Regulatory Laboratories (ERLs). He has served as a temporary adviser to WHO and as a technical expert at the EMA and the UK Department of Health.