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Posted: 17th April 2020

Pirbright supports global battle against COVID-19
More than 60 of Pirbright's diagnostic staff and scientists have volunteered to join the PHE COVID-19 testing effort.
Scientists utilising skills and equipment to support the testing effort

Researchers at The Pirbright Institute are utilising their unique facilities and expertise to help in the global battle against COVID-19.

Scientists are providing help in three key areas, allowing the UK to increase its capacity to test both NHS staff and patients and meet the Government’s pledge to deliver 100,000 COVID-19 diagnostic tests by the end of April.

Pirbright has supplied the UK's National Coronavirus Testing Centre in Milton Keynes with 13 of its high-throughput testing machines. Comprising seven nucleic acid extraction robots and six PCR machines, the equipment will be used to identify the presence of COVID-19 in samples taken from potentially infected people and/or healthcare workers.

Furthermore, more than 60 of Pirbright’s diagnostic staff and scientists have volunteered to join the testing effort at seven Public Health England testing sites across the nation. The volunteers have been working away from their families since 23 March and will be deployed on a rota basis for as long as is required.

Pirbright scientists with expertise in animal coronaviruses are also studying the virus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 to further understand its biology and how it infects cells. A vaccine trial is already underway, in which a potential vaccine is being tested on pigs.

“This work is a fantastic collaboration between world-leading medical and veterinary scientists in immunology, virology and molecular biology,” explained Dr Toby Tuthill, head of the virus programme at Pirbright.

“It will provide an evaluation of new SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in a relevant model and will also generate a panel of antibody-based tools which will help us understand virus structure and how it stimulates the immune response. These antibodies could also be developed as additional novel therapeutics to treat COVID-19”, he said.



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