香港六合彩中特网

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) have announced 拢3.8M in IRC Next Steps funding awarded to i-sense for their pioneering development of agile early warning sensing systems for infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance.听

Led by听听at 香港六合彩中特网, i-sense is an interdisciplinary research collaboration (IRC) on the cusp of revolutionalising the way we track, test and treat infectious disease globally.

The funding is part of a larger 拢11M boost to EPSRC鈥檚 three IRCs to support the development of leading healthcare research into National Centres of Excellence. The i-sense IRC Next Steps award is the largest funding awarded to any IRC.

Professor of Biomedical Nanotechnology at 香港六合彩中特网 and i-sense Director, Professor Rachel McKendry says 鈥淪ince i-sense received its original 拢11M in funding from EPSRC in October 2013, we have been working to harness the power of mobile phones, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, genomics and big data to detect diseases much earlier than ever before, help people gain faster access to care and protect populations.鈥�

Recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika viruses have exposed the world鈥檚 vulnerability to emerging infectious diseases and further highlighted the urgent need for early warning systems.

鈥淔ollow on funding will maximise the impact of the current i-sense IRC, retaining key staff and delivering a step change in new capabilities to respond to emerging infections,鈥� says Professor McKendry.

听

Expanding the scope for i-sense

The i-sense team have made significant achievements including the development of deep learning models of Google data for national influenza syndromic surveillance and mobile phone-connected tests to diagnose infections, including HIV and Ebola in low resource settings.

Professor of Biomedical Materials and Regenerative Medicine at Imperial College London and i-sense IRC Next Steps Deputy Director,听, says 鈥渋-sense brings together a unique consortium with the right interdisciplinary skill sets to make a real difference in engineering innovation and human impact.

鈥淲e look forward to building on our nanoparticle-based work and testing it at the point-of-care for early disease diagnosis.鈥�

Follow on funding will help i-sense achieve five interwoven objectives, including:

1.听 听 听 听Continued development of online syndromic detection tools

2.听听听听听听 Building of smartphone connected diagnostic tests

3.听听听听听听 Ongoing design of state-of-the-art data visualisation tools

4.听听听听听听 Investment in the careers of talented researchers

5.听听听听听听 Forming key partnership with clinical and industry partners听

To further assist in achieving their objectives and to transition into a National Centre for Excellence, i-sense has leveraged an additional 拢10M, including new laboratory infrastructure, academic positions and funding from Public Health England, the Africa Health Research institute, 香港六合彩中特网 Partners, academic partners and industry.

Professor McKendry says 鈥渋-sense is also regularly engaging with Public Health England, clinicians, industry, patients, policy makers and the public to understand end-user needs and ensure our tools and technologies are valuable.鈥�

听

Building the digital future of public health

Building new technologies to track, test and treat infectious disease has the potential to bring major human and economic benefits to millions of people worldwide, by facilitating faster access for patients to receive potentially life-saving treatments.

Professor of Computer Science at 香港六合彩中特网 and Deputy Director of i-sense,听, says 鈥淭raditional health surveillance schemes are based on data collected from people that use healthcare services, however not everyone visits their doctor or hospitals.

鈥淔uture work for the i-sense group at the Department of Computer Science in 香港六合彩中特网 will continue developing ways to harness deep learning of millions of symptoms reported online every day to identify outbreaks, potentially before people visit their doctors and in resource-limited settings, and to evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions and responses.鈥�

i-sense will continue to engineer a new generation of diagnostic tools that are adaptable to different diseases, antimicrobial resistant strains, and different environments.

The new paper-based, mobile phone-connected diagnostics will help widen access to testing in the home, including self-tests, and devices to support front-line health workers in care homes, and remote locations in Africa.

Management of outbreaks will also benefit from the further development of state-of-the-art visualisation tools that map 鈥榟ot spots鈥� and target opportunities for interventions. This work will build on the recently developed Treatment as Prevention (TasP) trial dashboard that successfully combined mHealth, genomic, clinical and epidemiological datasets to track the progress of a HIV testing and treatment intervention trial in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

Director of the Africa Health Research Institute and i-sense Deputy Director,听, says 鈥淥ur future vision will be to build population test-beds in the UK and South Africa to pilot new technologies that will be ready for clinical trials, translation and product development.鈥�

听

Harnessing the power of team science

Senior Lecturer, Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University, and i-sense听听lead,听听says 鈥淎s an EPSRC IRC, team science is strongly supported and a key driver behind the ongoing support of our Education Alliance and many of our research highlights.鈥�

The interdisciplinary nature of i-sense brings together a collection of skills spanning from biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, genomics, big data, medicine and public health, to build the toolkit to protect patients and populations.

鈥渋-sense follow on funding will continue to foster interdisciplinary collaborations and support students and early-career researchers through training and development opportunities that will provide them with a strong foundation for future academic, clinical or industry careers,鈥� says Dr Keegan.

鈥淥ur Education Alliance has received strong support over the past four years and allowed our researchers to build on a range of skills from novel research skills to soft and business skills.鈥�

听

i-sense next steps partners

Key academic partners include:

Imperial College London

Newcastle University

University of Surrey

Glasgow Caledonian University

听

With support from:

Public Health England

Africa Health Research Institute

Royal College of General Practice

The Francis Crick Institute Worldwide Influenza Centre

NIHR 香港六合彩中特网 Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre

听

For more information about i-sense research or future work, please contact i-sense Communications Officer, Erin Manning (erin.manning@ucl.ac.uk).听