Pirbright's longstanding expertise in viral diseases is helping us to provide vital services and information that will help to tackle the life changing pandemic caused by COVID-19.
Our Coronavirus Hub provides an overview of how the Institute is aiding the pandemic response, including Pirbright's COVID-19 research on vaccines, understanding how the virus works, and exploring diagnostic solutions, as well as the support we are providing to the UK diagnostic effort.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by a virus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which belongs to the coronavirus family. There are lots of viruses in this family and Pirbright has a history of working with livestock coronaviruses, such as infectious bronchitis virus, which infects birds, and porcine deltacoronavirus, which infects pigs. Our scientists are now applying their expertise to help with the COVID-19 research effort.
Discover more about the virus that causes COVID-19.
For media enquiries relating to our COVID-19 research or requests for expert commentary, please contact the Communications Team:
Email: communications@pirbright.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)1483 231120
Please note that our scientists are predominantly experts in animal diseases, which means they may not be able to comment on questions relating to COVID-19 in humans.
The majority of Pirbright's COVID-19 work has been supported by core funding from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Other grant funded projects whose objectives align with the research have also been utilised and our scientists are actively applying for COVID-19 specific funding.
Banner image: This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (orange), the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (brown) cultured in the lab. Credit: NIAID-RML