Cambridge has a strong track record in microbiology and infectious disease research and is internationally renowned for genomic medicine. This theme aims to combine these two areas of expertise to improve detection, prevention and treatment of existing infectious diseases and help to better prepare for future pandemics.
Translating our research discoveries to the clinic or public health is at the centre of our ethos and our investigators have contributed broadly in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has highlighted the need for new approaches to understand new and existing infection threats and provide a rapid pathway for new solutions.
For example, we have pioneered the use of genomics to trace outbreaks of COVID in hospitals and now are the centre of COG-UK and SARS-CoV-2 sequencing, allowing our investigators to discover how new variants emerge and their biological properties.
Our research will focus on three key areas, developing new vaccines and treatment strategies for pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, improving the response of older people to vaccines and bolstering our response to drug-resistant bacteria.
Our approach will involve using genomic surveillance to detect and identify the viruses and other pathogens representing the biggest threats. We will be developing a data and sample repository to help us better understand the epidemiological and clinical nature of infections, and creating a resource for researchers to develop the next generation of solutions.
Antibiotic resistance determination using Enterococcus faecium whole-genome sequences: a diagnostic accuracy study using genotypic and phenotypic data
Impact of penicillin allergy labels on surgical site infections in a large UK cohort of gastrointestinal surgery patients
Spatiotemporal persistence of multiple, diverse clades and toxins of Corynebacterium diphtheriae
Rapid implementation of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing to investigate cases of health-care associated COVID-19: a prospective genomic surveillance study
Ventilator-associated pneumonia in critically ill patients with COVID-19