Dr Sarah Keep

Pirbright researchers, in collaboration with New England Biolabs, Inc., have developed an innovative approach to study infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a highly infectious poultry pathogen. The new method, published in PLoS ONE, will allow quicker response to IBV, particularly in vaccine…

Researchers at The Pirbright Institute have found it is possible to generate novel vaccines for avian bronchitis that are capable of replicating in cell culture. Writing in the journal PLOS One, the team outline how a virus generated using reverse genetics was found to offer 100% protection against…

Researchers at The Pirbright Institute have developed a potential vaccine for infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) that could protect chickens from severe disease with just one dose. IBV is a coronavirus that causes a highly contagious disease in poultry, it results in respiratory symptoms and affects…

Researchers at Pirbright have developed a pig respiratory coronavirus (PRCV) model which will help to understand how coronaviruses cause disease and how the immune system responds to them. Human coronaviruses such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS…

Researchers from The Pirbright Institute working to improve vaccines for infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) have identified targets in the virus’s genetic code that could make vaccines safer. Better vaccines would have a huge impact on improving health and welfare of poultry and protect food security…

An enzyme called trypsin boosts the growth of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strains in lab cell cultures, scientists at The Pirbright Institute have shown. This finding could enable researchers to study strains of the poultry virus that were previously inaccessible and potentially provide…

Two recent studies from The Pirbright Institute and the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute show that two vaccines against specific strains of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) do not offer complete protection against a third strain, and that this may be partly down to the temperature range…

Pirbright scientists have edited and authored chapters in a new book titled ‘Coronaviruses’ which provides detailed information about the Coronaviridae family as well as laboratory techniques currently used in the field to study them. Whilst coronaviruses have long been known to cause devasting…

Two new genes have been identified in infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), a coronavirus that causes an acute, highly contagious and economically important respiratory disease of poultry. The research, carried out by scientists at The Pirbright Institute, raises the prospect that coronavirus genomes…

Scientists at The Pirbright Institute have shown that infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) vaccines produced in eggs have unpredictable mutations which may be prone to reversion in the field. IBV causes a poultry disease which results in large economic losses across the globe. Live attenuated vaccines…

Next week two consecutive meetings will focus on research into avian diseases that affect both food security and human health. The Focused Meeting on Molecular Biology and Pathogenesis of Avian Viruses and XV Avian Immunology Research Group (AIRG) meeting will take place on the 3-4 and 5-7 September…