Dr Christine Tait-Burkard: making an impact

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Growing up on a farm in the beautiful rural heart of central Switzerland, Christine Tait-Burkard had an enviable if somewhat sheltered childhood in a tiny, tight-knit community where everyone knew their neighbours.

Her collection of pets ranged from rabbits and cats to pygmy goats and cows, and her curiosity was evident early on when, having figured out how to read, she was devouring newspapers at the age of three, even before she got to playgroup.

Perhaps surprisingly, for someone with such an early and highly-developed interest in language, her favourite school subjects were maths and science. And when she got the chance to take biology, chemistry and history as part of a broad high school curriculum, her choices set her up for a career as a scientist. She also spoke four languages fluently and played five instruments, including flute, piano and accordion, and all that creativity, she believes, helped her along the way, broadening the thinking she eventually needed to find solutions to problems as a scientist. 

Leaving the confines of her village, where she helped out on the farm and stocked shelves in the local shop, she studied for a BSc and MSc in biology, major biochemistry, at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH, in Zurich. Having started her Masters focusing on biological chemistry, she found her metier when she began an internship in virology.

“I was simply hooked. I was infected by the matter. Viruses are master manipulators. They taught me more about cell biology than you will ever learn,” she says. “They are really good both as a tool and as a subject area to study.”

Deciding she had seen enough of the Swiss landscape and pox viruses, she found a fantastic PhD opportunity at a lab in Utrecht studying coronavirus which, ironically now, were then slightly forgotten and perceived as rather uninteresting. “Who would have predicted that these are the viruses that are back in the headlines today? I think that proves that you are never studying something useless - it’s always beneficial in the long run,” says Christine.

Finishing her PhD in virology from Utrecht University in The Netherlands in 2014, she moved to Scotland – influenced by her Scottish boyfriend, now husband, and the prospect of a post-doctoral project at the Roslin Institute. Her subject of focus for this was genome editing in pigs and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, the PRRS virus, a global problem which is particularly severe in piglets and costs the pig industry more than £1.75 billion annually in the US and Europe alone.

“The minute I saw the advert I thought ‘This post was written for me.’ I had a farming background, my parents had had cattle but had switched completely to pigs, so I knew everything there was to know about pigs. It was the opportunity to learn about genome editing that sealed the deal and I felt it was meant to be,” she recalls.

Edinburgh University gave her the opportunity and independence to design and develop her own projects. She and her colleagues could build on previous knowledge and the result was that they found a way, through the use of genome editing, to make pigs resistant to the virus. The key was removing a small section of the gene that makes them susceptible to the virus, meaning they don’t get sick – a discovery that has huge implications for the industry, creating the potential to increase pig health and the profitability of pig farming globally.

The project included a collaboration with leading pig breeder Genus PIC.  Dr Tait-Burkard is a huge fan of working alongside industry and commerce as long as it is balanced with the duties of a publicly funded institution.

Innovation is one of the University of Edinburgh’s biggest drivers and it’s a big advantage. At Roslin our innovation is built into our blueprint because there is a lot of collaboration with industry in terms of finding new solutions and making an impact.

"The University is doing a really good job moving into working with industry partners. A lot of our research projects so far have managed to make an impact, whether it’s PRRS resistant pigs or work with a company called Eco Animal Health, where we have tangible products.”

“The great thing about the work is to do something interesting with a purpose,” reflects Christine.

She’s also enormously enthusiastic about the bonuses from studying internationally. “It’s amazing to live in different countries, to get a different angle, to look at people, to look at systems and to learn what might be great or not so great about your own country,” she says. “It’s a benefit to all of us to learn, to understand other people, other systems, and that can only make us grow.”

But the thing that gives her greatest satisfaction in her career is educating and mentoring. “I still love the lab work, even though I don’t get to do it very often any more. The one thing that gives me the most joy still is working with people and, especially, educating young people. That is absolutely great. Seeing their potential, training them, moulding them. When my students graduate or find jobs that is still more rewarding than many ‘award’ achievements.”

She benefited from the influence of some world-famous minds and ‘amazingly supportive’ mentors, crediting Finnish biochemist and veteran virologist Ari Helenius and Professor of virus cell biology, Jason Mercer with putting her on the path to work with viruses. Professors Alan Archibald and Bruce Whitelaw, along with Dr Simon Lillico of the Roslin Institute were also hugely influential and helped educate her in the new language of pig genetics and genome editing.

A namecheck also goes to Professor Helen Sang, recently retired from the Roslin Institute, who was instrumental in the institution achieving the Athena Swan gold award, signifying its commitment to promoting gender equality and family-friendly working. “It makes it a fantastic environment for women and anyone who has family responsibilities,” says Christine.

As for what is next on Dr Tait-Burkard’s agenda, approval from the US Food and Drug Administration is awaited, which could put PRRS pigs on people’s plates. And, she says, enigmatically “I have some new ideas for genome editing for resistance. There are some fascinating studies on how coronaviruses interact with their host in both humans and animals. How we can exploit this to generate new treatments in livestock, including pigs to improve animals’ welfare and resilience to disease is an area that we’re keen to explore.”

Dr Tait-Burkard believes her field of research is partly characterised by the opaque nature of determining what lies on the horizon. “You never exactly know what’s next,” she says. “We are finding out more and more about how viruses interact with their hosts and that opens up new avenues, for example developing new anti-viral therapies. That will remain one of the next frontiers in building our understanding.”