Our research themes


ARC’s research activity is grouped into nine distinct themes spanning the breadth of biomedical and clinical research:

Imperial College London has been at the pinnacle of infection research since Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in 1928 at St. Mary’s Hospital. Today we are a world leader in this area with an unparalleled number of centres of infection research including the MRC Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection (CMBI), National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance, NIHR HPRU in Modelling Methodology, Centre for Infection Prevention and Management, and Wellcome Trust Centre for Global Health.

Our ARC@Imperial collaborative has a truly multidisciplinary approach to antimicrobial research and we consider this the only way to tackle the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). ARC@Imperial harnesses the expertise of leading molecular bacteriologists, clinical pharmacologists, clinical trials experts, chemists, primary care specialists, allied health professionals, bioengineers, computational biologists, mathematical modellers, statisticians, environmental experts, policy makers, business analysts, evolutionary biologists and epidemiologists at Imperial working alongside numerous external partners. The collaborative involves in excess of 100 academic experts working across the Faculties of Medicine, Natural Sciences, Engineering and the Business school at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The Imperial College Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) and the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) are integral to the close relationship between the College and the Trust which is pivotal in driving the translation of research into patient benefit.

The multidisciplinary collaborative programme of research undertaken within this strong infrastructure and utilising the diverse patient populations of North West London makes Imperial a fertile environment for groundbreaking advances in diagnostics and therapeutics targeting AMR. In addition, the “biobank” of samples and clinical measurements available from across the ARC network will help our scientists understand the causes of AMR. 

The ultimate driving force of our collaborative is to deliver improvements in patient care and population health, to support and develop our staff and researchers and to generate wealth for the economy. We will build groundbreaking multidisciplinary research programmes which facilitate the translation of innovation into healthcare. Our world-leading research in antimicrobial research and exceptional training record in this area provide the perfect foundations for tackling the global threat of AMR.

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