NERC Oxford, UK

Role and contribution

NERC-CEH Oxford is a Molecular Virology and Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, comprising 63 members of staff, of which approximately 30 are directly involved in virology and bioinformatics. The remaining staff are involved in environmental microbiology, bioremediation, molecular epidemiology and ecology. CEH Oxford is committed to a wide range of molecular epidemiological/ecological projects funded by government agencies. The Institute specialises in projects designed to understand the basis of virus pathogenesis, virus evolution and dispersal, disease amelioration, gene movement in the phyto- and phylosphere and also to develop recombinant expression systems and diagnostic reagents. One of the most frequently used vectors worldwide for protein expression “BaculoGold” and the current monoclonal antibody in use worldwide to identify West Nile virus, were both developed in CEH Oxford. The Institute was also the innovator of the high-fidelity long RT-PCR to produce infectious clones of flaviviruses in weeks rather than years (Refs 1 and 4). The people involved in the VIZIER project are : E. Gould, who is the former Director of CEH Oxford and Virology Research Fellow, has 142 published articles in refereed journals and one of the largest collections of arboviruses in the world. S. Moss is a Higher Scientific Officer, specialising in RT-PCR sequencing (Ref 2) and protein expression. T. Gritsun, is a Senior Scientific Officer, specialising in viral pathogenesis and molecular biology. She developed the long RT-PCR technology to produce infectious clones (Ref 1 and 4). A. Buckley, is a Higher Scientific Officer specialising in virology. The recent and novel discovery of the presence of apparently harmless West Nile virus in the UK arose from work initiated by E. Gould and carried out by A. Buckley (Ref 3).