Melvin Daniel Roji is a doctoral researcher at the Research Centre for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Albert DME Osterhaus and Dr. Martin Ludlow. He is a part of the German Research Foundation (DFG), Virus detection, pathogenesis and intervention research-training program, VIPER. He completed his integrated bachelor’s and master’s degree (BS-MS) in Biology from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Thiruvananthapuram, India with a full-time INSPIRE scholarship awarded by the Government of India. His major research focus covers virus-host interactions, zoonotic spillovers, and metagenomics enabled virus surveillance. He has experience with the molecular characterization of zoonotic viruses, including corona-, flavi- and morbilli-viruses. He is passionate on employing his expertise in molecular virology to elucidate the mechanism of virus-host interactions, aiming to contribute to the development of intervention strategies for emerging viruses.