Research themes

 

The NIHR HPRU in Respiratory Infections is a consortium comprised of world-class expertise in all areas of laboratory, public health, epidemiology and health-economic sciences. The HPRUs strategic coordination maintains responsive in its research capacity to address emergent threats and ensures that the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) proven track record in translational medicine remains harnessed directly to address public health priorities and health inequalities.

Themes

Respiratory Surveillance and Analytics

Imperial College Lead: Prof Neil Ferguson
UKHSA Lead: Dr Jamie Lopez-Bernal

Developing and testing public health response surveillance approaches to reduce the burden of influenza

A syringe and COVID vaccine vial

Vaccines

Imperial College Lead: Prof Wendy Barclay
UKHSA Lead: Dr Catherine Thompson

Understanding the basis of vaccine failures to develop methodologies to minimise future vaccine mismatches

Representation of coronavirus magnified

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV)

Imperial College Lead: Prof Peter Openshaw
UKHSA Lead: Prof Maria Zambon


Development of tools to track RSV’s evolution, prevalence in vulnerable populations and host responses during the emergence of new interventions

E coli bacteria

Mycobacteria

Imperial College Lead: Prof Nimalan Arinaminpathy
UKHSA Lead: Dr Esther Robinson

Establishing TB and NTM public health research databases to forecast TB transmission, estimate national NTM burden and incorporate identify transmission pathways, reservoirs and risk-factors.