The Pirbright Institute

Happy International Women’s Day! 🎉

At Pirbright we take pride in supporting equality through fairness in pay, benefits, and equal access to opportunities across the Institute.

We’re a proud holder of an Athena SWAN Bronze Award which recognises the work we have done to build further our principle of equity across all protected characteristics, including gender.

But what are we doing to reduce our gender pay gap? Here are some of the measures we are taking:

- Offering a wide range of flexible working arrangements and enhanced family friendly policies.

- Improving the process and governance on starting pay and pay on promotion.

- The introduction of a new merit progression scheme – in 2022, 66% of applicants successfully awarded a promotion were women.

We’re pleased to announce the creation of The Centre for Veterinary Vaccine Innovation and Manufacturing (CVIM) which will accelerate the development of animal vaccines to combat emerging and urgent infectious diseases.

CVIM, based at The Pirbright Institute, is a joint initiative between the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

➡️http://ow.ly/wnNs50N5H91

🐔Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) is a significant threat to the commercial poultry industry.

Pirbright researchers have developed new tools and techniques to determine the breadth of immune responses produced by vaccines against different variants.

Read the story ➡️ http://ow.ly/yHaV50MtzRx

“Pirbright’s research has and will continue to provide new tools to improve animal health and increase the efficiency of livestock production...”

🌍Read Pirbright’s Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22 to discover how our research has a global impact ➡️https://bit.ly/3H7pdEn

Together with 15 other partners across 7 European countries, Pirbright has recently secured funding from the UK Research and Innovation Horizon Europe Guarantee Scheme to develop innovative vaccines and diagnostics for livestock reproductive diseases

➡️http://ow.ly/ks6X50Mp9pM

🎉 Congratulations to visiting scientist Dr Mariatulqabtiah Abdul Razak who has been awarded the prestigious L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award 2022 (Malaysia).

Read about her research ➡️http://ow.ly/7ksf50Mbnov

Marek’s disease is a severe and deadly disease that affects poultry across the globe.

The disease is caused by and is associated with cancer, neurological symptoms, and immunosuppression.

Vaccines for are available, but they do not prevent the spread of disease.

Researchers at Pirbright are investigating how the chicken immune system responds to the virus, in the hope that they can develop more effective vaccines. Read more 👉http://ow.ly/m2pE50LAVYV

Happy 🐷🐔

One of our strategic priorities is to contribute to food security and the One Health Agenda through global collaborations.

We are committed to sharing our knowledge and expertise to build capacity in countries that require more robust mechanisms to protect their livestock and livelihoods against viral diseases.

The Pirbright Institute joins MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in leading a new Monkeypox Consortium.

Funded by BBSRC and the Medical Research Council, the group will work together to develop better diagnostic tests, identify potential therapies and study vaccine effectiveness and the virus’ spread.

Read more 👉 http://ow.ly/bj9a50Lfu7r

Timeline photos

Seven of Pirbright’s female scientists are leading the way in new funding after receiving BBSRC Impact Acceleration Account awards.

We spoke to five of these to learn how their funding will help them deliver through existing projects ➡️http://ow.ly/JZER50KyPCT

Pirbright scientists have been exploring ways to create safer and more effective vaccines against to protect animal health and .

Recent research explores this in detail 👉 https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/news/2022/08/novel-way-create-vaccines-against-infectious-bronchitis-virus-explored-pirbright

Today is 🦟

This day commemorates Sir Ronald Ross' discovery in 1897 that female Anopheles transmit to humans.

Today aims to raise awareness of the diseases spread by mosquitoes and highlight the global effort to tackle these deadly creatures!

Pirbright joins forces with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK Health Security Agency, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford and the Science and Technology Facilities Council laboratories to tackle infectious diseases that threaten global health.

This consortium has received £1.6 million to research new diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments for diseases that impact human and animal health ➡️http://ow.ly/QO1l50KlEYq

African swine fever is a deadly disease in pigs and recent outbreaks close to the French border in Germany bring the disease closer to the UK.

At Pirbright, we have been studying African swine fever virus since the 1960s.

Find how what do know about the virus and what we are doing to tackle it➡️ http://ow.ly/RMEn50Kk1W8

We have wonderful research groups at Pirbright that do more than just work in labs, they come together to raise money for great causes such as .

Here is our Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Immunology group before and after their . Well done to the team for raising nearly £700!

👋Today we say farewell to the last of our undergraduate students who joined us to undertake a 12 month placement as part of their degree.

We hope you had an amazing year and gained valuable experience which will stand you in good stead for the future - well done!

Pirbright offers BSc Year-In-Industry placements and & MSc research projects every year. To keep up to date with open studentships please see our website➡️ https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/postgraduate-training-supervision/bsc-and-msc-projects#msc-research-projects

🐓Have you ever played Wordle? Well the GCRF One Health Poultry Hub have created their very own version to test your knowledge of and !

Give Zoodle a go today 👉 https://www.onehealthpoultry.org/what-we-do/zoodle/

Pirbright wows visitors with Disease Detectives at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2022

The Royal Society Exhibition was a huge success this year!

It was an honour to be part of such a prestigious event and to share our research with people of all ages.

Read a round-up of what we got up to here👉https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/news/2022/07/pirbright-wows-visitors-disease-detectives-royal-society-summer-science-exhibition-2022

Pirbright wows visitors with Disease Detectives at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2022 Pirbright was one of just 16 exhibits selected to attend the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2022 which showcased cutting-edge science for people of all ages. Pirbright’s exhibit, titled ‘Disease Detectives’ explained what scientists and detectives have in common, and why s...

Pirbright has been awarded £100,000 by the Impact Acceleration Account (IAA). This funding will support seven new research projects at the Institute which will range from investigating the transmission of foot-and-mouth disease to vaccine development to protect poultry from infectious bronchitis virus.

Find out more here➡️ http://ow.ly/UTAX50K1nMh

A collaborative study, led by researchers at Pirbright, investigates the antibody response in older adults after they had received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

They found that protection decreased 20 weeks after vaccination, and that having a third booster jab could improve the immune system's ability to recognise different variants.

Find out more👉 https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/news/2022/07/covid-19-booster-vaccinations-help-immune-system-fight-sars-cov-2

A huge thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers who made The Royal Society Exhibition such a success. We could not have done it without you. We are proud of your passion, dedication and love for sharing your research.

A massive thank you, also, to the staff at the Royal Society, the support and guidance you offered made it all possible.

Until next time!

That's a wrap!

Thank you to everyone who visited and this week. It has been an honour to have a stand at the The Royal Society Exhibition this year.

We have enjoyed a week of being able to share Pirbright's research and have such interesting discussions with you all. Until next time!

Today is your last chance to visit us at The Royal Society Exhibition!

We’ll be here until 6pm for you to meet our scientists, crack some codes, and find out if you have what it takes to be a

See you there!

👉https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/summer-science-exhibition/

📢There's fun for all the family at The Royal Society Exhibition this weekend.

🦟Come along and discover how Pirbright scientists are using genetics to prevent the spread of disease with our hands-on interactive Bug Busters!

➡️https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/summer-science-exhibition/

This week the were visited by Claudia Hammond from the BBC World Health Service's podcast series 'Health Check'.

Pirbright scientist, and leader of the Institute's Transmission Biology research group, Dr Simon Gubbins explored how scientists use technology to prevent future pandemics.

👂You can listen to the podcast episode here👉https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct32wl

🔎Looking for something to do this weekend? Why not visit The Royal Society Exhibition!

We'll be there with fun activities for the whole family to get involved in, including a return of !

Find out more here➡️https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/disease-detectives

Disease Detectives

This week we're bringing our research to life at The Royal Society's festival!

Come along to our exhibit where you can:
🔎Join the in identifying and controlling a disease outbreak
🦟Get hands-on at our LEGO exhibit learning about diseases

Find out more information 👉 https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/disease-detectives

Disease Detectives Have you got what it takes to become a Disease Detective? Pandemic preparedness: why scientists are key Discover how emerging diseases are spread and how research helps to prevent and contain them. Scientists play a critical role in identifying, controlling and preventing new and emerging diseases.V...

👀Here's a sneak peak at our brand-new interactive, which opens at the The Royal Society Exhibition today!

🦠Come and join the this week to discover how some of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s priority pathogens spread and learn how our scientists are working to prevent the next pandemic.

👉https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/summer-science-exhibition/

🔎What do scientists and detectives have in common? We're exploring this question and more this week at The Royal Society Exhibition!

Have YOU got what it takes to be a ? There is only one way to find out ...

https://www.pirbright.ac.uk/disease-detectives

played an important role in the development of vaccines, including early studies carried out by Pirbright and Oxford scientists ➡️ http://ow.ly/SMes50IYZje

Here are 10 about mice that you might not know!