Dr John McCauley is a programme leader in the Virology Division at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Mill Hill, London, UK. Since October 2009 he has also Director of the WHO Collaborative Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at NIMR. He moved in 2006 to NIMR having spent 20 years working at the Pirbirght and Compton Laboratories of the Institute for Animal Health. He has worked on influenza viruses for over 30 years. Previously he has worked on the induction of interferon by avian influenza viruses when infecting mammalian cells, the correlation of the differences in sensitivity of avian influenza viruses to sialidase inhibitors with the nature of the haemagglutinin and neuraminidase glycoproteins, and the strategy of packaging of the segmented RNA genome of the virus. He has also worked on other RNA viruses including Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus and Swine Vesicular Disease Virus.