Margaret Tisdale

Margaret Tisdale (née Breeze; 10 September 1950 – 29 April 2015) was a Welsh-born clinical virologist known for her studies of antiviralresistance in HIV and influenza virus, and for coordinating the development of the anti-influenza drug zanamivir.^[1][2]

Born in Welshpool, Tisdale was educated at Trefnanney School and Welshpool Comprehensive, before attending Guildford University.^[2]

Tisdale spent 33 years as a researcher at the Wellcome Research Laboratories, GlaxoWellcome and GlaxoSmithKline, where she eventually became head of clinical virology.^[1][2] She was an expert in HIV drug resistance and in optimising antiretroviral therapy.^[1] Tisdale headed the development of the influenzaneuraminidase inhibitorzanamivir,^[1] which Glaxo licensed from Biota in 1990. She established the global Neuraminidase Inhibitor Susceptibility Network in 1999 to track resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors in clinical strains of influenza virus.^[1] She also published on antiviral drugs against rhinovirus, which causes the common cold.^[3]

She died aged 64 in Wrestlingworth, Bedfordshire.^[4]

• M Tisdale, SD Kemp, NR Parry, BA Larder (1993). Rapid in vitro selection of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 resistant to 3'-thiacytidine inhibitors due to a mutation in the YMDD region of reverse transcriptase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 90: 5653–56
• M Tisdale, T Alnadaf, D Cousens (1997). Combination of mutations in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 reverse transcriptase required for resistance to the carbocyclic nucleoside 1592U89.Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 41: 1094–98
• M Tisdale (2000). Monitoring of viral susceptibility: new challenges with the development of influenza NA inhibitors. Reviews in Medical Virology 10: 45–55