About us

Our research addresses three major challenges: infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in people and animals; improving animal health and welfare; and the impacts of environmental change. We aim to reduce the burden of infectious disease, improve the lives of animals and increase food security, and help the world adapt to climate and other environmental changes.

The institute is made up of seven departments:

• Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour
  Studying the biology of animals, plants and microbes, from the individual to the population level, to understand the processes driving the natural world.
• Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology
  Conducting infection research of direct clinical relevance, centred on improved diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infections.
• Infection Biology and Microbiomes
  Focused on how pathogens interact with their hosts at the molecular and cellular level, with the aim of designing better vaccines and drugs.
• Livestock and One Health
  Seeking to understand the behaviour of diseases in people and animals, particularly in livestock.
• Veterinary Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology
  Studying the morphological and functional changes of normal and pathological organs and systems.
• Small Animal Clinical Science
  Delivering clinical care to dogs and cats, while teaching future and postgraduate vets in the state-of-the art, specialist-led Small Animal Teaching Hospital and primary care University Veterinary Practice.
• Equine Clinical Science 
  Multidisciplinary specialist teams working together for the best outcomes in specialist and first opinion equine veterinary care.

We host the UK’s leading veterinary school, the School of Veterinary Science, which teaches around one thousand veterinary students across a 5 year programme. Our staff also contribute to the delivery of teaching on undergraduate degree programmes such as Bioveterinary Sciences, Zoology and Microbiology and Infection, as well as in the School of Medicine, and deliver a range Masters (MSc and MRes) programmes.

Research-led teaching provides exciting opportunities for our students, who will form the next generation of professionals, researchers, doctors and veterinary practitioners.

The institute comprises 370 academic staff, 274 professional services staff and 215 postgraduate research students.

Our staff and students are based mostly on the Liverpool and Leahurst campuses, with some staff and PhD students at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome centre in Blantyre, Malawi, and the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, with which we have strategic partnerships.