The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has provided funding to establish 14 Health Protection Research Units (HPRU) to address key public health threats. The HPRUs are partnerships between Universities and Public Health England forming multi-disciplinary centers of excellence with a focus on collaborations and knowledge sharing.
NIHR HPRU in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance was established at University of Oxford in April 2014 and was renewed in April 2020 for a further 5 years. Key collaborators are The European Bioinformatics Institute, University of Leeds and Animal and Plant Health Agency.
HPRU in Healthcare Associated Infections at Oxford University is led by Professor Sarah Walker who vision is to find better ways to manage and prevent threats from antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections, by detecting them faster, working out who needs protecting most and how this can be done.
It consists of 4 broad Research Themes:
(1) Populations
(2) Interventions
(3) Context
(4) Sequencing
THEMES
NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance
PPI/E Activities
We want to create opportunities for individuals to interact, engage and contribute to our research, to: Improve its quality and relevance: Ensure our research questions align with the wider public’s priorities: Disseminate findings to everyone who may find them relevant, useful or interesting: Inspire adults and children and promote careers in research and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Knowledge Mobilisation
Our strategy for knowledge mobilisation/policy-maker engagement is based on PHE leaders being best-placed to ensure HPRU studies directly inform PHE needs and results are disseminated beyond academia, including into PHE guidance/outputs
What's new
UNDERSTANDING THE IMMUNITY OF RECOVERED COVID-19 PATIENTS
20 October 2020
Two vital research programmes taking place at the University of Oxford may hold the key to understanding the immunity of recovered Covid-19 patients. The data will also be used by Professor Sarah Walker at the University of Oxford who is working with the Office for National Statistics on the COVID-19 Infection Survey.
Prof Sarah Walker receives OBE
12 October 2020
Prof Walker, Professor of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine, was recognised for services to academia and the COVID-19 response and will receive an OBE.
Evaluation of LamPORE rapid tests for Covid-19 show high levels of diagnostic sensitivity
25 September 2020
Scientists from the University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Medicine have today published their evaluation of LamPORE, a novel diagnostic platform for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA. It combines loop-mediated isothermal amplification with nanopore sequencing. This technology has the potential to analyse thousands of samples per day on a single instrument.