Professor Laura Piddock wins 2016 Microbiology Society Outreach Prize
08 September 2016
This year, the Microbiology Society’s Outreach Prize was awarded to Professor Laura Piddock, Professor of Microbiology at the University of Birmingham and Chair in Public Engagement at the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC).
The prize was presented to Laura at the Society’s Annual General Meeting for her continuing work engaging with the public and the media on the issue of antimicrobial resistance. Central to this has been her role as Director of Antibiotic Action, a public awareness initiative that focuses attention on the need to develop new antimicrobial therapies.
When did you first realise you wanted to become a scientist?
You know, I never did. That’s going to sound ridiculous! My parents actively encouraged me to do my degree, but it was only once I started that that I realised science was fun and I enjoyed it.
But I really found my scientific home when I started my PhD on mode of action of beta-lactam antibiotics with Richard Wise in a hospital in Birmingham. That was it really, I never looked back after that.
Can you explain your field of research?
My team focuses on mechanisms of drug resistance but also the way antibiotics work. That’s two sides of the same coin, because if you understand resistance, often that tells you about the targets of antibiotics.
How did you get involved with outreach?
It was actually in the 1990s. My team was doing a lot of work on foodborne bacteria, including Campylobacter and Salmonella. The BBC commissioned a [TV] series called ‘Meat’; it was all about where our meat comes from and how to cook it. One episode was on foodborne infections, and they did quite a big section on antibiotic resistance in Campylobacter and Salmonella.
Quite frankly, what we were saying then – antibiotic resistance emerges in animals and with the same mechanisms of drug resistance as found in bacteria from people – is being said now, but for data from newer technology like whole genome sequencing.
You were an expert adviser for the O’Neill Commission on the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance. What was that like?
The Commission was great, we had conversations and meetings, and the reports were sent to people like me in advance to give feedback. Often we would make statements that they were able to put economic, tangible values on. I learnt a lot and it was interesting seeing my field from an economic perspective that I’d never really thought about.
You also lead the public awareness initiative Antibiotic Action. How did that come about?
I was chairing a session on antibiotic resistance at a Microbiology Society meeting in Harrogate. I was in the corridor walking to that session, when Professor Ian Chopra (from the University of Leeds, now retired) stopped me and said, “What are you going to do about the lack of new drugs?”
And I said, “Do you mean me, personally, or me as president of BSAC?”
And he said, “Both.”
And that really made me think. As a result of that, I set up a working party at BSAC called “The Urgent Need”. What I tasked our working party with was not rediscovering what the problems were, but [investigating] why nothing was being done about those problems.
The [findings] were that everyone had been talking to themselves – preaching to the choir – but what we needed to do was tell everyone outside of microbiology what the issues were. BSAC established Antibiotic Action as a direct output in November 2011. But what we didn’t expect, because we were planning it just for the UK, was the way it so rapidly took off and outside the UK.
How would you describe your role?
I am responsible for strategic direction and public engagement. This includes liaising with like-minded organisations, the media, the Antibiotic Action Champions, the Advisory Board, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics, and supervising internships (which usually deliver reports and manuscripts for publication). I deliver many of the public engagement activities, including to the general public in schools, and science and literature fairs.
What do the Antibiotic Action Champions do for the initiative?
The Champions’ role is to spread the message that we need new treatments, that what we have now we should use very carefully, and in the way that is most appropriate for [each] country.
We do not tell people what to do, we are an information portal. Antibiotic Action is not there to give advice or tell people what to do, because using antibiotics is very country specific.
What sorts of organisations do you partner with?
We partner with many, including professional societies. We’re trying to reach people who know very little about antibiotics – they may be professionals, but they may be children. So we partner with lots of different groups when they’re doing activities that we otherwise would not do. For example, we partnered with Turn Your Nose Up, the group that put forward the pig pledge this year. Their whole purpose is to reduce intensive farming of pigs, but in intensive farming they use a lot of antibiotics. So they approached us to put a bit about antibiotics at the end of their video. So we do things like that – anything really that looks like it might get to an audience we might not normally reach.
How do you feel about winning the Society’s Outreach Prize?
Oh, it’s brilliant. I haven’t been nominated for many prizes in my career. I think because I’ve had an unconventional career trajectory, I never had the mentoring or worked with senior figures who nominate people for prizes. So to suddenly get this is lovely.
To find out more about Antibiotic Action, and to register as a Champion, visit their website.
Image: Laura Piddock..