Pip Beard

Biography

Professor Beard is Head of the School of Life Sciences and Professor of Viral Pathology at Keele University. Professor Beard leads a research team that studies poxviruses that cause disease in livestock such as lumpy skin disease virus, sheeppox virus and goatpox virus.

Professor Beard was awarded her veterinary qualification from the University of Sydney and her PhD from the University of Edinburgh. For the past twenty years her research has focused on finding out how poxviruses cause disease. She has studied the molecular interactions of the virus with the host, described the pathological and immunological changes that occur in response to infection with a poxvirus, and most recently investigated insect-borne transmission of lumpy skin disease virus within a population of cattle. She has worked in universities and research institutes in Australia, Scotland, the USA, Mongolia and England.

Professor Beard’s research has been rewarded with a Wellcome Trust fellowship (2004), the Speciality Research Medal from The Royal College of Pathologists (2014), and the Journal of Comparative Pathology Medal (2018). She was the World Organisation for Animal Health expert for sheeppox, goatpox and lumpy skin disease from 2016-2022, currently leads the European Commission-funded international research consortium DEFEND (2018-2023), and is a member of Wellcome Trust Pathogen Biology and Disease Transmission Discovery Advisory Group (2022-2024). She has been supported through her career by exceptional research scientists and students within her team.

Professor Beard has a particular interest in promoting research as a career for veterinarians. She lectures every year to veterinary students on the breadth of careers open to them, offers undergraduate placements for veterinary students in her lab (for example through the UK Veterinary Summer Studentship Programme), and supports the Cornell University Veterinary Leadership scheme.

Professor Beard is also a strong advocate for gender equality. She campaigned for opportunities for women when on the Board of the International Veterinary Virology Network, and as a past Director of the Genomia Fund (a seed and pre-seed fund which seeks to provide modest amounts of pump-priming funds to support the commercialisation of emerging technologies). She developed Women in Science as a cross-cutting theme of the DEFEND consortium (https://defend2020.eu/women-in-science/), wrote the DEFEND Gender Action Plan, and used this as a platform to develop practical activities to increase the participation of women in science. She was an Athena Swan Champion at the Pirbright Institute, and is currently the Chair of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity committee in the School of Life Sciences at Keele.

Research and scholarship

Professor Beard has been supported throughout her career by the exceptional research scientists and students in her team, and pays tribute to their ideas, resilience, and inquisitiveness.

For the past twenty years Professor Beard has carried out research into poxviruses. Her research has focused on the question “how do poxviruses caused disease?”. She has identified viral proteins that poxviruses use to cause disease such as the kelch proteins (doi: 10.1099/vir.0.81854-0, doi: 10.1099/vir.0.82815-0), and host proteins and pathways which the virus uses to facilitate its survival and replication including TRAF2, RAB1A and the retrograde transport pathway (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0098431, doi: 10.1128/JVI.03013-13, doi: 10.1128/JVI.01464-16). 

More recently Professor Beard has focused on poxviruses that affect livestock, particularly the three capripoxvirus (CPPV) species - lumpy skin disease virus, sheeppox virus and goatpox virus. These viruses are neglected pathogens that cause substantial loss to low and middle income countries. She has studied the insect-borne transmission of lumpy skin disease virus (LSDV), (doi: 10.1128/JVI.02239-20, doi: 10.1128/jvi.00751-22), a subclinical form of LSD (doi: 10.1128/JVI.02239-20, doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022), and the immune response to cattle to LSDV infection (doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2022). She has worked with colleagues to calculate the impact, including economic cost, of capripoxvirus disease in Africa (doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2021.105503, doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2021.105473, doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00008, doi: 10.3389/fvets.2020.00259), generating evidence that can be used to lobby for better capripoxvirus control measures such as vaccination programmes in affected regions. She has used her role as World Organisation for Animal Health expert for sheeppox, goatpox and lumpy skin disease to facilitate the implementation of new knowledge into better control and prevention programmes for capripoxviruses.

Teaching

I have taught via lectures, small group learning and online courses in infectious diseases, pathology and veterinary clinical skills.

Supervision

I have supervised seven post-doctoral scientists, eight PhD students (five as primary), six MSc students, and 12 undergraduate students. My team members have progressed on to a variety of scientific career paths in both academia and industry.

Collaborations and grants awards

I have secured funding for my research from a range of organisations including BBSRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust, European Commission, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. My research has been recognised with a Wellcome Trust Clinical Fellowship (2004), the Speciality Research Medal from The Royal College of Pathologists (2014) and the Journal of Comparative Pathology Medal (2018).

I have been Director of the Genomia Fund, chair of the international DISCONTOOLS expert review groups for lumpy skin disease, sheeppox and goatpox, member of the Microbiology Society (Virology Division), the Veterinary Specialty Advisory Committee of the Royal College of Pathologists, and board member of the International Veterinary Vaccinology Network. I was the World Organisation for Animal Health expert for sheeppox, goatpox and lumpy skin disease from 2016 to 2022. I am a member of the World Organisation for Animal Health Advisory Group on mpox, and I sit on the Wellcome Trust Pathogen Biology and Disease Transmission Discovery Advisory Group.