We are an interdisciplinary and collaborative team of researchers based in the Pirbright Institute and the University of Glasgow, with 5 experienced investigators and 2 postdoctoral researchers.
Graham Freimanis (GF, PI, TPI)
Graham is a staff scientist with expertise in bioinformatics and high throughput sequencing (HTS), the study of CoV evolution [BB/L003988/1 , (12)] and viral evolutionary genomics as part of the EU EMIDA funded project “EpiSeq” (BB/I014314/1). GF has expertise in molecular virology, assay development and currently manages the sequencing facility within high containment at TPI (BBS/E/I/00007037). GF is actively involved in research into applying HTS to study viral evolution and application of genomics techniques to virus and livestock research.
Erica Bickerton (EB, Co-I, TPI)
Erica leads the CoV group and has expertise in the study of CoV replication, evolution and pathogenicity. Her research interests include the analysis of CoV genomic variation (BB/L003988/1) (12) gene expression and mechanisms of transcription (35, 36). Other projects include the modification of CoVs for rational live vaccine development by altering CoV tropism, ability to replicate or cause disease (BB/M012794/1, BB/P019137/1, BB/R019576/1).
Pippa Hawes (PH, Co-I, TPI)
Pippa leads the Bioimaging team at Pirbright and has expertise in studying the cell biology of host-pathogen interactions using advanced light and electron microscopy (BBS/E/I/00007039). As well as collaborating with many researchers at Pirbright on projects relating to virally induced membrane rearrangements, she has introduced cutting-edge techniques to Pirbright, including correlative light and electron microscopy, super-resolution light microscopy and cryo-electron tomography in partnership with eBIC at Diamond Light Source.
David L Robertson (DLR, Co-I, CVR)
Research interests encompasses computational and data-driven approaches applied to viruses and their host interactions. He has over 25 years of experience of studying RNA virus molecular evolution and has made contributions to understanding the importance of viral diversity and recombination. Since moving to the CVR in 2017, David has headed the MRC-funded Viral Bioinformatics research programme. A major research focus is the evolution of coronaviruses and he’s actively participating in two WT funded consortium studying SARS-COV-2: COG-UK and AFRICO-19, and the MRC funded project ISARIC-4C.
Ke Yuan (KY, Co-I, CVR)
Research focus is understanding evolutionary principles of virus and cancer using machine learning techniques, for example, to find common mutational signals that are predictive of functional change. His work has resulted in tools that infer evolution histories from a variety of genomic features (point mutations, epigenetic signals, and genome instabilities) in HTS datasets. Linked to coronavirus he’s collaborating with DLR on the AFRICO-19 project and they co-supervise an MRC-funded PhD student linking genome signatures to CoV evolution.
Ge Wu (GW, PDRA, TPI)
Ge obtained her PhD in 2020 in veterinary medicine and science from University of Nottingham, UK. During her PhD, she worked on the development of diagnostic assays for emergent viruses namely Zika (ZIKV) and Equine Influenza viruses (EIV) using techniques such as pseudotyped viruses, plant expression and next generation phage display. In her first postdoc, she continued to work on the development of a pseudotyped virus neutralization assay for Rift Valley Fever virus (RVFV). Her interests lie in cutting-edge lab techniques and bioinformatics.
