“It's a frustrating and challenging problem,” said Lewis. “Coronaviruses can cause feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) in cats usually under the age of two and there is nothing vets can do to save these young animals.”
She felt that she might be able to make a difference as a researcher and began to look for opportunities to take a break from practice and undertake some research. She found there was only one place that offered her the chance to launch a full-time lab-based research career: the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute at the University of Bristol.
She successfully applied for a Clinical Primer Award from the EBI and started a six-month research project on coronaviruses in 2013.
“I had to resign from my job in order to take up this opportunity,” said Lewis. “But the EBI funding matched my salary as a clinician, which helped enormously.”
During her clinical primer project, the complete genomes of coronaviruses were successfully sequenced from a pair of cats who were littermates housed in the same environment. One cat had died from FIP. The other had coronavirus in its faeces and had not developed any signs of disease.
“We identified a small number of differences between the pair of viruses, two of which have been previously identified and are strongly associated with the development of fatal FIP,” said Lewis. “In the future the Bristol Feline Coronavirus Group plan to design a system to study the effects of these individual mutations which may provide the first step towards an effective vaccine.”
Lewis found her six-month primer so rewarding that she decided to apply for PhD funding and pursue a full-time career in research. “The EBI's Clinical Primer Scheme has opened so many doors for me,” said Lewis. “Not only did I gain experience and understanding of the whole research process, from problem formulation to dissemination of results, I also learned valuable new laboratory skills and grant writing skills, and made important contacts.”
Following her Clinical Primer research, Lewis applied for a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship. She is thrilled to have been awarded the fellowship to undertake a PhD which she will begin in September 2014 at the University of Bristol, Faculty of Medical and Veterinary Sciences and the University of Cardiff, Institute of Infection and Immunity.