Laura Piddock

Prof. Laura Piddock joined GARPD as Head of Scientific Affairs in January 2018 on a secondment basis alongside her research activities at the University of Birmingham, where she is Professor of Microbiology and continues to lead her research team of 14. Despite initial intentions to follow a career in forensic science, she became fascinated with the world of microbiology especially antibiotic resistance where she has been at the forefront of antimicrobial research since starting her PhD in 1982. Her research focuses on how antibiotic resistance arises, defining and characterising clinically relevant mechanisms of resistance in pathogenic bacteria. This has provided a platform for her early drug discovery activities. Laura has advised organisations such as the World Health Organization, and scientific data from her team has been used by national governmental agencies when deciding whether to withdraw the licences of some antibiotics from veterinary medicine. She collaborates widely with other researchers in Birmingham, elsewhere in the UK and overseas; current funded projects are with colleagues in Ireland, France, and Switzerland. She has published over 200 articles in international peer reviewed journals, and given over 200 presentations at international conferences. Until 2017, Laura was the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Chair in Public Engagement and in this role was the Director of Antibiotic Action and led the secretariat of the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics. She is also currently Chair of the EU Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance Scientific Advisory Committee. In 2017, she was made a founding Fellow of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.