Award details

Virus diversity and evolution

Reference	BBS/E/I/00007035
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Donald King
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Dr Dalan Bailey, Dr Carrie Batten, Dr Philippa Beard, Dr Erica Bickerton, Dr Andrew Broadbent, Professor Bryan Charleston, Professor John Hammond, Professor Munir Iqbal, Professor Venugopal Nair, Dr Christopher Netherton, Professor Satya Parida, Dr Paolo Ribeca, Dr Holly Shelton, Professor Elma Tchilian, Dr Tobias Tuthill, Dr Yongxiu Yao
Institution	The Pirbright Institute
Department	The Pirbright Institute Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	2,802,399
Status	Current
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/04/2017
End date	31/03/2023
Duration	59 months

Abstract

The Pirbright Institute provides the UK with capacity to predict, detect, understand and respond to incursions of viral pathogens of livestock and viruses that spread from animals to humans. Pirbright represents a hub of world class facilities and expertise for the study of exotic and endemic viral diseases in the natural host, therefore enabling our research to be directly translated into future control measures. Virus genomes are continuously reshaped by mutation, recombination and re-assortment. These processes facilitate the diversity and rapid evolution required for virus adaptation to selection pressures in their environment. Exploiting recent advances in genomic sequencing, this project will address a series of common themes to define the mechanisms that drive the evolution of the diverse range of pathogenic mammalian and avian viruses that are studied at Pirbright. These represent viruses with RNA (positive-sense, negative-sense and segmented) and DNA genomes. At the finest scales, we will exploit the latest techniques for sequencing viral genomes to characterise RNA viral swarms as they are transmitted within and between susceptible hosts. At a broad scale, studies will be undertaken to provide valuable insights into the factors that are responsible for the natural extent of viral sequence variation that is generated by the circulation of the viruses in endemic settings. Building upon our international expertise in this area, these studies will provide crucial information that underpins our knowledge of the global epidemiology of these diseases and is essential for disease-prediction models and the development of successful vaccines and antivirals. These data also have tremendous practical application as demonstrated by the development of sensitive molecular tests for foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) that allow for more rapid testing of infected animals and reliable diagnosis of pre-clinically infected animals, resulting in improved disease control with culling of fewer animals. The work in this project will be made possible by close interaction with the diagnostic facilities at Pirbright which act as UK, European and World Reference Laboratories with unrivalled access to physical samples and sequence databases. Anticipated outcomes of this project are: improved fundamental understanding of the mechanisms of virus evolution and the relationships between evolution, pathogenesis and epidemiology; knowledge of how virus evolution is shaped by natural and vaccine derived immune responses will inform future vaccination strategies; provision of web based tools for rapid and open dissemination of viral sequence data and tools for rapid characterisation of novel/unexpected disease syndromes; information to inform forecasting models for disease severity, prevalence, transmission and spread.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, Microbiology
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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