Dr David Longbottom graduated from Manchester University in 1985 with a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry
and from the Edinburgh University in 1989 with a PhD in Biochemistry on the
effects of cholera toxin on intracellular signaling in enterocytes. His first postdoctoral
position was a 4-year project at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh on tissue localization of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance
Regulator. He moved to Moredun in January 1993, taking a post with Moredun
Animal Health (now Moredun Scientific) on a commercially funded project
developing vaccines for controlling nematode infections. In 1994, he was
appointed as a postdoctoral scientist on an EU-funded Third Framework project developing
better detection systems for chlamydial infections of farm livestock and
human zoonotic infections. Since then, over the last 30 years, he has
continued to work on chlamydial infections in livestock species, investigating
the mechanisms of pathogenesis and immunity and developing vaccines and improved
diagnostic tools against Chlamydia abortus, one of the most common causes of
abortion in sheep worldwide. He is currently an editor and editorial board
member for three scientific journals, leads the EU DISCONTOOLS expert committee
on ovine chlamydiosis, and served on the European Society for Animal
Chlamydiosis and associated Zoonoses (ESACZ) Executive Committee as the first
and prior (2018-2023) President. He will be retiring from his career in
science in August 2025.
