Page 8 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

Interview with Nicola Lewis, RVC alumna and Professor in One Health Evolutionary Biology
What were your student days like?
I started at the RVC in 1991 and then undertook an intercalated BSc at Guy’s and St Thomas’s – inspired to try research by Jim Bee – and lived in Manor House with a couple of vets from my year – Claire Miller and Helen Wishart, who were intercalating at UCL, and a brave non-vet, Rachel. I spent the summer on expedition in Guyana in the middle of the jungle before coming back to Hawkshead for my clinical years. I was one of the first to complete a lecture-free final year and did my elective in Exotics at ZSL and Whipsnade – looking at campylobacter prevalence in Mara.
What did you do after you graduated?
I went into general practice in the UK and then in Hong Kong. We then moved to Brazil where my first daughter was born, and I started scientific grant writing for a conservation NGO trying to protect the papagaio cara-roxa – or purple-faced parrot (Amazona brasiliensis) in the Atlantic rainforest of Parana. I spent the rest of
my career break riding Lusitano dressage horses for a local Haras and travelling round South America and even to the Falklands.
What prompted the move from practice to research?
I was a vet in mixed and small animal practice for several years after qualifying. During my BSc I was most interested
in neurology. However, having lived and
worked overseas, I became fascinated with diverse animal populations, the way we live with animals and the interface
with infectious diseases. Each Saturday afternoon clinic in Hong Kong consisted of a continuous stream of diseases that we had only covered theoretically at university.
When did your interest in virology start?
In Brazil I knew I was moving back to the UK and wanted to specialise in infectious diseases. I was lucky that the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium was about to launch, and I was one of several colleagues now at the RVC who were funded to undertake a PhD through this DEFRA-supported initiative to train more vets in infectious diseases. I focused on equine influenza for my PhD and then was given the opportunity to expand into other animal influenzas, starting with wild birds. We then had a pandemic in 2009 so I added swine influenza to my research. Many of the analytical methods we use are not pathogen-specific, so similar to veterinary medicine, you can employ a comparative approach. This is one of the strengths of vets in infectious disease research – we are used to working in multi-host systems and we have been exposed to them since starting training.
What made you decide to progress your career back at the RVC?
I was based at Cambridge’s Department of Zoology when the opportunity at
the OIE/FAO International Reference Laboratory at APHA arose. After a year at APHA, an infectious disease collaborator told me about the RVC position, I applied and was fortunate to be successful. It was also a chance to cement stronger links between the RVC and APHA through joint research, funding and sharing of expertise. These links mean I now wear two hats where I’m at the RVC for most of my time and am also Deputy Director of the OIE/FAO IRL at APHA.
Of all your professional achievements, which are you most proud of?
That’s a difficult one! I get most satisfaction working with local researchers and scientists on their infectious disease challenges in animal systems. I think a great success has been managing 10 years of wild bird avian influenza research in the Caucasus, where we have not only sampled for
flu virus but understood much more about the ecology and evolution of these viruses in the natural host. I have also gained even more respect for the complex diversity of host-pathogen interfaces that are out there.
The world is much more aware of zoonotic disease now because of COVID-19 – how do you think this awareness might change the shape of scientific research?
I think we need more than awareness – however welcome that is. We need sustained and wholesale embracing of a One Health approach to infectious diseases – not just those that are zoonotic – as food security issues can arise from non-zoonoses that are ‘just’ as devastating to animal populations. We need to explain more clearly
why we need fundamental scientific understanding of the complex wild and domestic animal, and human interfaces, where zoonotic pathogens circulate. And, just as importantly, what we do with the knowledge we gain. This means cross- disciplinary One Health frameworks that are developed in partnership with local
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