Division of Infection and Immunity

[Link to Professor McHugh's 2011 review]

Our Centre

It is almost half way through 2013 as I write this review of 2012; it was a busy year and it has taken me some time to ‘take stock’. The consolidation of the Centre for Clinical Microbiology at the Royal Free Campus provided us with great opportunities for collaborative working and importantly enabled previously disparate teams to understand each other’s work. In the near future this will be reflected in applications for research funding but in the short term it had an immediate effect on the breadth of the research projects we offered out MSc and BSc students. As is often the case the preliminary work undertaken by project students lays the foundation for funding applications and further development.

Research in the Centre is organised around 4 key themes and colleagues have updated me on the progress in each area:

HCAI

In addition to running HCAI meetings and several MSc student projects, this group has been active in a number of projects aimed at reducing transmission of infection. The site and origin of bacterial reservoirs in wards have been identified and investigated. A important focus of transmission is the ward based computer key board and the HCAI group have developed software to encourage users to clean their keyboards as well as photolytic coatings for keyboards that significantly reduce bacterial contamination in normal ward lighting conditions.

Clostridium difficile is a significant concern in our partner hospitals and the group have been focussed on improvement of both diagnostics and disinfectants for the control of this infection. This is underpinned by a PhD project, in collaboration with Public Health England and LSHTM, exploring the bacterial population structure of C. difficile locally and globally.

Further work addressing the rapid detection of antibiotic resistance in Enterobacteriaceae has been a focuss of our clinical service and funding by a Pfizer Antiinfectives Research Grant has enabled a Clinical Fellow to innovate in this area with mass spectrometry.

Reflecting the changing nature of our associated clinical service, rapid detection of implant associated infections is of increasing importance to our Centre.

TB

2012 continued to be a successful year for the TB group; 2 projects were funded and initiated; INFECT-MET funded by the EMRP (EU) to develop high order metrology for infectious disease diagnostics. We provide expertise in molecular diagnosis of respiratory bacteriology. PreDICT-TB (website) an IMI (EU) funded project with partners which aims to develop robust pathways to evaluation of new drug combinations for treatment of tuberculosis. Our contribution is in the application of the Molecular Bacterial Load assay, developed in our Centre, to enumeration of the treatment effect in in vitro and in vivo models as well as the use of transcriptomic approaches for the understanding of the mechanism of drug action in vivo.

REMoxTB continues to be a major activity in the Centre and this clinical trial completed recruitment in January 2013 with 1931 patients. The last patient will complete the study in July 2013 and the results will be reported in the first months of 2014. We have secured further funding to ensure stability for staff and indeed have expanded the team to ensure a timely conclusion to this important study. One of the major outputs of REMOxTB will be the laboratory manual which enabled us to standardise methods across 3 countries and we have been given further funding to develop this into a universal laboratory manual for TB clinical trials.

TB research in UCL is not just located in the Centre and so we have instigated UCL-TB (www.ucl.ac.uk/tb) to encourage communication and collaboration in TB research across the College. The strength of TB research at UCL was reflected by the World TB Day event, led by myself, Professor Ali Zumla and Dr Marc Lipman (WTBD 2013), the 2012 event saw the launch of a special supplement to the Journal of Infectious Diseases, edited by Professor Zumla (LANCET).

Education

The Centre is the home for 3 MSc programmes. The MSc Infection & Immunity is now well established with our students in demand for PhD programmes and research assistant posts. 

Our MSc Medical Mycology programme was the first of its kind in the world (and remains the only course offering blended learning from international experts in the field) and we are proud that it is in its 10th year. The MSc/PG Dip in Healthcare associated Infection Control, entered its second year, with numbers growing and increased interest in this blended learning programme which allows practitioners to access their learning when their professional schedule allows.

I am pleased to note that Mr Marcus Leung has been awarded his doctorate and our current compliment of current research students to 15 (9 in I&I) working from the RF, PHE Colindale, PHE Porton Down, Barts & London and Jamaica.

Mycology

We continue to innovate in the area of rapid fungal diagnostics and MALDI-ToF has been a natural centre of attention over the last year. Comparative studies using this technology , PNA-FISH and conventional molecular methods –have led to presentations at national and international meetings with the prize for best oral presentation going to Rebecca Gorton (PhD student and Clinical Scientist) at the British Society for Medical Mycology (BSMM) annual scientific meeting.

Clinical studies feature strongly in this work package and these include ; clinical studies of antifungal prophylaxis strategies, radiological studies and novel immunodiagnostics for invasive mould infections are in progress and some early data have been presented at international conferences. Two major studies that the Centre has made substantial contributions to are the 60,000 patient ICU Candida study and the, now completed, 1000 patient European study on invasive mould disease in patients with haematological malignancy.

The clinical research experience of this group is reflected in publication of national and international guidelines on diagnosis and management of fungal infection and the re-election of Professor Chris Kibbler for a further year as President of the British Society for Medical Mycology.

Molecular diagnosis

Molecular diagnosis underpins much of the work of the Centre but as a work package on its own it accounts for a substantial output from the team. In 2012 Professor Zumla was awarded an EU FP7 award RiD-RTI [see "News, Media Coverage & Outreach" section] , to develop new rapid diagnostics for respiratory infections. This initiative includes partners from across Europe and takes a syndromic approach to diagnosis of infection.

Working with the Academic Centre for Respiratory Medicine we continue to support a substantial effort considering the role of infection in COPD with Respiratory Medicine for which I lead the microbiology.

Together with Prof Andrew Burroughs (Liver unit), Dr Ronnie Chee (Consultant Immunologist) at the Royal Free and Dr Harry Antoniades (Imperial College), Dr Bambos Charalamabous is investigating the translocation of bacterial products from the gut into the systemic circulation in liver disease patients as a biomarker of outcome. With an MSc in Infection & Immunity student the team have optimised a molecular based method to extract and quantitate bacterial DNA from blood alongside the determination of viable bacteria.

The aim of CCM is to deliver research, training and education of the highest standard in infectious diseases.

London is a cosmopolitan city and this provides an exciting environment to study infectious diseases, however, our work in London is placed into a global context by our international collaborations of which our relationships with UTH, Lusaka, Zambia (led by Professor Zumla) and KCMC, Moshi, Tanzania (led by Professor Tim McHugh from the Royal Free) are the longest established. Whilst focussed on delivery of high quality research, relevant to the location, our collaborations have been underpinned by a commitment to capacity development both in people and infrastructure.  

A number of researchers in the Centre are part of UCL's Institute for Global Health and the Institute's Grand Challenges programme; you can find out more about the Institute here.

Research in the Centre reflects the challenges presented by a diagnostic service in central London, thus our main research themes are:

• Molecular diagnosis
• Tuberculosis
• Mycology
• Respiratory infections
• Evolution of antibiotic resistance
• Hospital Acquired Infection

Support for our work comes from substantial funding from the EU, EDCTP (read more here), MRC, Wellcome Trust , NIHR and the Gates Foundation amongst others. 

Download REMox Laboratory Manual (latest version)

We believe that our training programmes for Clinical Microbiologists are second to none and course developments are grounded in our research practice and findings.

We provide programmes to undergraduate science and medicine students, postgraduate taught courses as well as providing academic support for continuing professional development for all grades of Health Care Scientist and Medical Trainees. Details of the programmes we run can be found here.  The Centre provides research training through PhD and MD programmes closely aligned with our research interests.

The courses we currently offer (session 2012/2013) are as follows:

Postgraduate taught/distance learning:
MSc/PG Diploma/PG Cert Medical Mycology;
MSc/PG Diploma/PG Cert Infection and Immunity;
MSc/Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare associated Infection Control

Research Degrees: MPhil/PhD

Most publications by staff at the Centre can be found on UCL Discovery: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/

Below is a selection of 10 from March to May 2013

Professor Graham Rook

(1) Rook et al (2013) Microbial "Old Friends", immunoregulation and psychiatric disorders. In "The gut mictobiome and the nervous system, Volume 26 (Heidt et al, eds), Old Herborn University, Herborn 61.
Link: http://www.old-herborn-university.de/literature/book/OHUni_book_26_article_6.pdf

Professor A Zumla: Publications of Research Group

(2) Authors: Al-Hajoj S, Varghese B, Shoukri MM, Al-Omari R, Al-Herbwai M, Alrabiah F, Alrajhi AA, Abuljadayel N, Al-Thawadi S, Zumla A, Zignol M, Raviglione MC, Memish Z.
Title: Epidemiology of antituberculosis drug resistance in saudi arabia: findings of the first national survey.
Journal/Ref: Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2013 May;57(5):2161-6. doi: 10.1128/AAC.02403-12. Epub 2013 Mar 4.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23459478

(3) Authors: Bates M, Mudenda V, Mwaba P, Zumla A.
Title: Deaths due to respiratory tract infections in Africa: a review of autopsy studies.
Journal/Ref: Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2013 May;19(3):229-37. doi: 10.1097/MCP.0b013e32835f4fe4.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23429099

(4) Authors: Al-Tawfiq JA, Zumla A, Memish ZA.
Title: Respiratory tract infections during the annual Hajj: potential risks and mitigation strategies.
Journal/Ref: Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2013 May;19(3):192-7. doi: 10.1097/MCP.0b013e32835f1ae8.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23429098

(5) Authors: Reddington K, Tuite N, Barry T, O'Grady J, Zumla A.
Title: Advances in multiparametric molecular diagnostics technologies for respiratory tract infections.
Journal/Ref: Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2013 May;19(3):298-304. doi: 10.1097/MCP.0b013e32835f1b32.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23425918

(6) Authors: Rakotosamimanana N, Doherty TM, Andriamihantasoa LH, Richard V, Gicquel B, Soares JL, ZumlaA, Razanamparany VR.
Title: Expression of TNF-Alpha-Dependent Apoptosis-Related Genes in the Peripheral Blood of Malagasy Subjects with Tuberculosis.
Journal/Ref: PLoS One. 2013 Apr 12;8(4):e61154. Print 2013.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23593415

(7)  Authors: Brodin P, Valentini D, Uhlin M, Mattsson J, Zumla A, Maeurer MJ.
Title: Systems level immune response analysis and personalized medicine.
Journal/Ref: Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2013 Apr;9(4):307-17. doi: 10.1586/eci.13.9.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23557267

(8) Authors: Kapata N, Chanda-Kapata P, O'Grady J, Bates M, Mwaba P, Janssen S, Marais B, Cobelens F, Grobusch M, Zumla A.
Title: Trends in childhood tuberculosis in zambia: a situation analysis.
Journal/Ref: J Trop Pediatr. 2013 Apr;59(2):134-9. doi: 10.1093/tropej/fms065. Epub 2012 Dec 12.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23243079

(9) Authors: Wallis RS, Kim P, Cole S, Hanna D, Andrade BB, Maeurer M, Schito M, Zumla A.
Title:Tuberculosis biomarkers discovery: developments, needs, and challenges.
Journal/Ref: Lancet Infect Dis. 2013 Apr;13(4):362-72. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70034-3. Epub 2013 Mar 24.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23531389

(10) Authors: Lawn SD, Mwaba P, Bates M, Piatek A, Alexander H, Marais BJ, Cuevas LE, McHugh TD, Zijenah L, Kapata N, Abubakar I, McNerney R, Hoelscher M, Memish ZA, Migliori GB, Kim P, Maeurer M, Schito M, Zumla A.
Title: Advances in tuberculosis diagnostics: the Xpert MTB/RIF assay and future prospects for a point-of-care test.
Journal/Ref: Lancet Infect Dis. 2013 Apr;13(4):349-61. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70008-2. Epub 2013 Mar 24.
Weblink: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23531388

2013

MARCH

Title: UCL WORLD TB DAY MEETING
"Targeting zero deaths from TB: progress, reality and hope"
Date: Monday, 25 March, 2013 - all day from 9am
Start time: 9am
Venue: Atrium, Royal Free Hospital
Register at: http://uclworldtbday.eventbrite.com
Download programme

JANUARY
Title: Acid Fast Club
Date: Friday, 11 January
Start time: 12.30
Venue: Atrium, Royal Free Hospital
Organiser: Prof Tim McHugh

Title: Healthcare Associated Infection meeting
Organisers: Prof Peter Wilson, UCLH; Dr Damien Mack, NHS
Date: Friday, 18 January 2013
Time: 3.30pm to 5.00pm
Venue: Tutorial Room 11 (ground floor), Medical School, Royal Free Hospital
Agenda (WORD)

2012

Professor Peter Wilson and Professor Tim McHugh: Inaugural Lectures and Reception.  

Thursday, 13 December, 2012

Professor Alimuddin Zumla - Karolinska Institute's Annual Clinical Science Prize

Professor Zumla delivered his presentation ‘Questioning dogma in Medicine and Science – a lifetime’s perspective on infectious diseases’ on November 8 at Birkeaulan, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden. 
Karolinska Institutet (link)

UCL Grand Challenge of Global Health: 1-day conference on TB

Tuberculosis: Local and Global

Friday, 23 March, 8.30-6.30 at the Royal Free.
The UCL Institute for Global Health is marking World TB Day with a meeting that addresses tuberculosis as a challenge to London and UK health services and sets it in a global context, with the launch of Tuberculosis and TB/HIV; Controversies and unanswered questions, a Journal of Infectious Diseases special supplement edited by Professor Ali Zumla (UCL Centre for Clinical Microbiology) and Marco Schito (National Institutes of Health, USA).

The meeting will be of interest to scientists, clinicians and students. The conference is free to attend but registration is required. 

More details. Register for this event.

Centre for Clinical Microbiology Meeting

Wednesday, 11 January, 2012 1.30pm (half-day mtg)

Chair: Dr Tim McHugh, Director
Venue: Peter Samuel Hall, Flr 1, Royal Free
Programme of presentations (downloads)

..

2011

Healthcare Associated Infections Research Group: 15 December 2011, 3.30pm-5.30pm

Venue: Tutorial Room 5, Lower Ground Floor, Royal Free Hospital

Healthcare Associated Infection meeting is hosted by Peter Wilson (UCLH) and will include presentations from his team. 

Agenda (WORD doc)

..

Tackling Tuberculosis on a Global Scale

Thursday 24th March 2011
1.30 - 6pm, Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1 and South Cloisters, UCL.

World TB day, 24th March, commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced the dicovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Join us to explore UCL research on TB through a series of short presentations and posters.Everyone Welcome!

Registration Link: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health/events

..

UCLP TB Afternoon (3 November, 2010)

A report and presentations from UCLP's Infection Theme's first TB afternoon can be seen here.

Staff are all based at the Centre on UCL's Royal Free campus unless otherwise identified. (Reviewed: 15 May 2013)

PreDiCT-TB: http://www.predict-tb.eu/

Date: 2 July, 2013
This EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) funded proejct: "PreDiCT-TB: Model-based preclinical development of anti-tuberculosis drug combinations" is in it's second year and  the consortium have launched a project website at www.predict-tb.eu.  The website shows the aims of the project and the work of the participants.  UCL's work is led by Professor Tim McHugh.

World TB Day 2013: Targeting zero deaths from TB: progress, reality and hope

Date: 25 March, 2013

This year's World TB Day event featured speakers from around the globe - to read an overview and selection of photographs from this  highly successful meeting follow the link: LINK

www.ucl.ac.uk/tb: the launch of a TB research website

Date: December 2012
www.ucl.ac.uk/tb is a new website connecting researchers in UCL and across their networks with the aim of improving research into TB, dissemination of research outcomes and new funding opportunities for research groups.  The website is run by Professor Tim McHugh.

World TB Day 2012: Tuberculosis: Local and global

Date: 23 March 2012

To mark World TB Day 2012 the UCL Institute for Global Health held a meeting to address tuberculosis as a challenge to London and UK health services and set it out in a global context. The meeting also marked the launch of 'Tuberculosis and TB/HIV: Controversies and unanswered questions', a Journal of Infectious Diseases special supplement edited by Professor Ali Zumla (UCL Centre for Clinical Microbiology) and Marco Schito (National Institutes of Health, USA). MORE

REMox TB achieves recruitment target (Jan 2012)

Dr Tim McHugh, Director of the Centre for Clinical Microbiology, is pleased to announce that the recruitment target of 1900 was achieved (final number 1904).   REMoxTB is a phase III regulatory clinical trial designed to test treatment shortening regimens for tuberculosis. The ultimate outcome of REMoxTB is a new regimen for treatment of TB and the study leaves a substantial legacy the network of trials sites prepared to test the next generation of compounds and regimens.

To read more from Dr McHugh about this project.
Details of the Trial on NIH Clinical Trials website.
TB Alliance press release (1 February, 2012)

PanACEA - introduction to the Project (2011)

PanACEA, The Pan African Consortium for the Evaluation of Antituberculosis Antibiotics, is an externally funded international collaborative project exploring new drugs that have the potential to shorten TB treatment.

One of the centre's biggest projects, PanACEA, The Pan African Consortium for the Evaluation of Antituberculosis Antibiotics, is an externally funded international collaborative project exploring new drugs that have the potential to shorten TB treatment.

World TB Day (24 March 2011)

Tackling Tuberculosis on a Global Scale

Thursday 24th March 2011
1.30 - 6pm, Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1 and South Cloisters, UCL.

World TB day, 24th March, commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced the dicovery of mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Join us to explore UCL research on TB through a series of short presentations and posters.Everyone Welcome!

Registration Link: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health/events

Lancet Seminar: Tuberculosis (March 18, 2011)

As world TB day approaches on 24 March, The Lancet publishes a Seminar Online First that reports that, with increasing rates of drug-resistant TB, the progress being made for decades by world TB programmes is under threat. It also discusses the how other risk factors, such as smoking and diabetes, are increasingly important in fuelling the global burden of TB.

The Seminar is by Professor Alimuddin Zumla, University College London Medical School, UK, and Dr Stephen Lawn, University of Cape Town, South Africa. 
(Press Release, Abstract, PDF)

TB Afternoon (3 November 2010)

A report and presentations from UCLP's Infection Theme's first TB afternoon can be seen here.

EDCTP & UK-TBD: Our Research Commitments

Support for our work comes from substantial funding from the EU, EDCTP (read more here), MRC, Wellcome Trust , NIHR and the Gates Foundation amongst others.  Our MRC-funded project to develop collaboration between TB research groups in the UK has it's kick-off conference in January - read more about TBD-UK here.

RiD-RTI EU-funded Research Team Meeting (April 2013)

Front row (right to left): Dr Ljuban Grgic (UCL, UK - Project Administrator), Prof Laura Huopaniemi (Mobidiag, Finland - Co-investigator), Prof Alimuddin Zumla (UCL, UK - Principal Investigator), Prof Vanya Gant (UCLH,UK - Co-investigator), Dr Claude Weisbuch (Genewave, France, Technical Coordinator)

Standing (right to left): Mr Marko Kuisma (Mobidiag, Finland - Business Development Manager), Dr Juha Kirveskari (Mobidiag, Finland), Ms Ilaria Marsili (UCL, UK – ERDO Manager ) Dr Nina L. Tuite (NUIG, Ireland - Senior Postdoctoral Researcher), Dr Kate Reddington (NUIG, Ireland - Postdoctoral Researcher),  Dr Mary Lenahan (UCL, UK – Postdoctoral Research Associate), Dr Francis Domain (Genewave, France – Product Manger, Biology), Dr Yann Marcy (Genewave, France – Head of R&D), Dr Philippe Loiseau (Genewave, France – Project Officer), Ms Kirsi Moilanen (Mobidiag, Finland - Research Assistant).

Professor Zumla chaired a meeting in April with representatives from 5 European country partners to discuss progress on their multi-million euros EU-funded collaborative R&D programme grant on development of new diagnostic platforms for rapid point of care screening for a range of bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens from a single sputum sample within an hour of obtaining the specimen. 

The final platform will have inbuilt tech for it to run from solar power so, if successful, it can be useful in developing countries at points of care.   

Research Project leaflet: Download PDF

"Infectious disease: TB's revenge."

Leigh Phillips' News feature in January's edition of "Nature" featured comments by Professor Tim McHugh on the extent of the threat of drug resistance strains of TB in the world.
LINK TO NATURE ARTICLE. Date: 2 January, 2013.

EU grant 6 million euros (£4.7million) award provides unique opportunity for multidisciplinary solutions

Centre members Professor Alimuddin Zumla (Professor of Infectious Diseases and International Health), Dr Justin O’Grady (senior postdoctoral scientist) and Dr Vanya GANT (consultant microbiologist, University College London Hospitals NHS Trust) have successfully signed a contract with the EU, Brussels for  six million euros (£4.7 million pounds)  they competitively obtained from European Union programme entitled ‘Health Innovation’.
    At the first partners meeting held at UCL earlier this month, Professor Zumla, Dr Justin O’Grady and Dr Vanya Gant said they were “absolutely delighted to receive this award since it consolidates our leadership of global infectious diseases research and development and the special excellent collaborative partnerships which UCLH and UCL have with our overseas partners.   They said they will use these monies to enhance their existing fruitful collaborative research activities on bacterial pneumonia, influenza and tuberculosis and to develop a diagnostic test that will rapidly and  detect the exact cause of serious lung infections, which would allow the most appropriate specific antibiotics to be prescribed quickly thus improving treatment outcomes.
    “It provides an ideal opportunity for us to develop a unique multidisciplinary network of clinicians, basic scientists, molecular biologist, microbiologists linked in with industry to work in unison to achieve a multiplier effect in improving the clinical treatment management outcomes of  respiratory infections, such as bacterial pneumonia, tuberculosis and fungal infections”
     “There is a great need for rapid, accurate molecular diagnostics tests capable of identifying a large panel of causative microorganism/s to enable appropriate microorganism-specific therapy to be rapidly initiated for improved management outcomes”
    “This exciting grant award will further enhance our collaborative activities between UCLH and UCL and with our partners in Finland, Ireland and France, in the fight against these killer respiratory diseases which kill millions of people each year.”
Date: 24 July 2012

"Should medical postgrad courses teach management skills?"

Date: 19 June, 2012
Stephen Hoare's article for The Guardian reported how changes in postgraduate healthcare training will improve patient care. Professor Tim McHugh was interviewed for this article.
LINK TO GUARDIAN

The Health Show: TB Special

A film on the GeneXpert machine will be transmitted on Saturday 13 August 2011 on The Health Show as part of a TB special.  The film features Dr Tim McHugh and Dr Bertie Squire and also includes: a feature on the new TMC 207 drug, a feature about tracing TB patients who don't take their treatment in Lesotho and a studio interview with Prof Ajit Lalvani from Imperial College, London. 

The show and the films on the website cannot be seen in the UK but you can watch it live on www.rentadrone.org and you can watch it anytime on www.rockhopper.tv from the morning of Saturday 13 August 2011 (link to TB short films including GeneXpert).  It can also be downloaded from the Rockhopper site 28 days after transmission. The GeneXpert film will be on the BBC website from 11 August 2011 (Thursday afternoon).  

The transmission times are Saturdays at 10:10 and 20:10 GMT and on Sundays at 07:10 and 23:10 GMT. See link for more information about the show - http://bbc.in/ntogPP

(Reviewed: 13 May, 2013)

Current Students and their project titles (session 2012/13)

Student Name: Ms Michelle Cairns
Based at Health Protection Agency, Royal London Hospital
Title: Clostridium difficile: phylogenomics and disease severity.
Supervisors: Professor Tim McHugh, Professor Brendan Wren and Dr Nandini Shetty
Email; Wren Lab

...

Student Name: Ms Marie Anne Chattaway (based at Health Protection Agency, Colindale)
Title: A Novel Approach to Pathogen Recognition in association with Diarrheagenic Enteroaggregative E. coli
Supervisors: Professor John Wain, Dr Clare Jenkins, Professor Tim McHugh
...

Student Name: Ms Nicole Christian (based at UWI Mona Campus, Jamaica)
Title: A Prospective Study of Quinolone Resistance in a Tertiary Care Referral Centre in the West Indies.
Supervisors: Professor Tim McHugh, Dr Bambos Charalambous and Dr Gemma Vanstone
...

Student Name: Ms Joana Fonseca
Title: Evolution of drug resistance in tuberculosis.
Supervisor: Professor Tim McHugh, Dr Sharon Kendall (RVC), Dr Bambos Charalambous
...

Student Name: Mr Davinder Garcha
Title: Role of bacteria in COPD exacerbations.
Supervisor: Professor Tim McHugh, Professor Wisia Wedzicha
...

Student Name: Dr Eleanna Giannatou
Title: Diagnosis and management of invasive aspergillosis.
Supervisor: Professor Chris Kibbler, Professor Hans Stauss
...

Student Name: Ms Rebecca Gorton
Title: Molecular diagnosis of invasive fungal disease.
Supervisor: Professor Chris Kibbler, Professor Tim McHugh
...

Student Name: Ms Alice Marriott
Title: Resistance and persistence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis against frontline therapeutics.
Supervisor: Dr Joanna Bacon, Professor Tim McHugh
...

Student Name: Ms Jessica Mears
Title:Evaluation of the National TB strain typing service
Supervisors: Professor Ibrahim Abubakar (UCL & HPA), Dr Pam Sonnenberg (UCL) and Professor Tim McHugh (UCL)
...

Student Name: Mr Kartykayan Moganeradj
Working title: The Role of the Transposable Element IS6110 in the evolution of successful lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
Supervisors:  Dr Catherine Arnold (UCL & HPA), Professor Ibrahim Abubakar (UCL & HPA), Dr Pam Sonnenberg (UCL) and Professor Tim McHugh
Summary
...

Student Name: Dr Michael E Murphy
Title: Predicting the outcome of tuberculosis treatment
Supervisor: Professor Stephen H Gillespie (University of St Andrews), dr Marc Lipman (RF NHS)
Project synopsis, publications and presentations
...

Student: Dr Sara Murthy
Title: Tuberculosis: measuring outcomes in clinical trials
Supervisors: Professor Tim McHugh, Professor Stephen Gillespie (St Andrews)

...

Student Name: Dr Giovanni Satta
Title: Meeting the challenge of drug resistant tuberculosis
Supervisors: Professor Tim McHugh and Dr Marc Lipman
PhD Proposal (PDF)
...

Student Name: Ms Laura Stoffels
Topic: Synthesis of novel antibacterial proteins in microalgae.
Supervisors: Dr Saul Purton (ISMB, primary), Dr Bambos Charalambous

...

Student Name: Mr Henry Taunt
Topic: Synthesis of novel antibacterial proteins in microalgae.
Supervisors: Dr Saul Purton (ISMB, primary), Dr Bambos Charalambous

...

Student Name: Ms Sarah Thurston
Title: Antibiotic resistance in COPD
Supervisors: Professor Tim McHugh, Professor Wisia Wedzicha
...

Recently completed Research degrees (sessions 2010/11/12)

Student Name: Dr Marcus Leung
Title: Multiple colonization of Streptococcus pneumoniae as means of cell-to-cell communication and adaptive microevolution.
Supervisor: Dr Bambos Charalambous
Project synopsis, publications and presentations
Presentation (Jan 2012):Competence stimulatory peptide gene comC as a promising target for differentiating Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae from Streptococcus pneumoniae and other streptococcal species (Download)

Student Name: Dr Ndekya Oriyo
Title: Longitudinal study on carriage, antibiotic resistance and prevalent serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae in a semi-isolated community in North-East Tanzania
Supervisor: Dr Bambos Charalambous
Second Supervisor: Professor Stephen H Gillespie (University of St Andrews)
...

Student Name: Dr Robert Shorten
Title: The molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in north London.
Supervisor: Professor Tim McHugh
...

Student Name: Dr Amani M Alnimr
Title: Microbiological assessment of novel anti-tuberculosis compounds
Supervisors: Professor Tim McHugh, Professor Stephen H Gillespie (University of St Andrews)

Title: Drug resistant tuberculosis: fit for the challenge
Delivered: 13 December, 2012

Title: Healthcare-acquired infection: control by innovation.
Delivered on 13 December, 2012.

Professor Alimuddin Zumla

Professor Ali Zumla has been awarded the Zambian Order of Distinguished Service (First Division) by the President of Zambia during the Zambia presidential award investiture ceremony on 24 October, during Zambia's independence day celebrations, at the Presidential State House in Lusaka. The award was made to recognise Professor Zumla's considerable achievements in medicine and international development.

He has been further honoured as winner of the Karolinska Institute's Annual Clinical Science Prize and will be delivering the his presentation ‘Questioning dogma in Medicine and Science – a lifetime’s perspective on infectious diseases’ on November 8 at Birkeaulan, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden.  Karolinska Institutet.