Imperial College London

Academic Institute

Shiranee Sriskandan

Unknown

No

NIBDAPC_2025_0053

Infectious diseases, which are illnesses caused by organisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites, are a significant problem in the UK and worldwide. To improve healthcare for patients with infectious diseases, we need to improve our tests to diagnose specific infections and make better predictions about how individual patients may be affected. We also need to develop vaccines for infections where vaccines do not currently exist (for example, group A streptococcus, E coli, norovirus), and we need to monitor newly emerging infections, including those that are resistant to current antibiotics. The Bioresource for Adult Infectious Diseases (BioAID) is an ongoing NIHR-supported ethically-approved collaborative project, established since 2014, that has collected biological samples and clinical information from patients presenting with suspected infectious diseases to UK hospital Trusts. It is one of the leading examples of collaboration between BRCs. To date, nearly 5000 patients have been recruited from Imperial College Healthcare Trust and recruitment is ongoing, for at least a further 4 years. Participants give consent to have research blood samples collected alongside routine clinical sampling. From these samples, patients’ genetic (DNA) code will be obtained, which are recorded and stored in a database along with other parts of their blood samples called ribonucleic acid (‘RNA’) and ‘serum’, and any microbial organisms which are identified as part of the routine care they receive. Participants also give consent for their NHS hospital and primary care records to be accessed, and clinical information to be collected and stored by the BioAID study team, linked to their research blood samples. Studies using this unique BioAID resource will improve our understanding of how people’s genes and the infectious microbes interact to develop disease and they will also lead to new diagnostic tests, better vaccines and treatments. We are requesting assistance from iCARE to access specific lines of medical data from our study patients who have already provided consent for us to view, use and store their data. These data, which include date of ICU admission, date of discharge, date of death, diagnostic code and results of standard NHS microbiology and virology tests (e.g. blood and urine cultures, influenza nasal swabs) form part of the routine data collected by the BioAID research nurses, but by their nature are not always available at the time that the nurses complete the data collection form. This information is needed for a current, funded study on elderly infection, which is investigating how immune responses to infections change with aging. It is also essential for future studies on infectious diseases, and will enable the BioAID resource to be used to its full potential.

Adult infectious diseases (ID) are a significant cause of illness and death throughout the world. Despite significant medical advances, they continue to be challenging to diagnose and treat, with factors such as the aging population, increasingly complex surgical procedures, widespread use of medicines that reduce the immune system and growing antibiotic resistance contributing to this. The proportion of infections that are difficult-to-treat due to antibiotic resistance is growing, and has been identified as a major threat to health by the World Health Organisation and national governments, including the UK. To reduce antibiotic resistance, it is important we only use antibiotics when they are necessary. However, this can be difficult because our current tests for infection are not always accurate. We need better diagnostic tests, so we can target antibiotics to those who need them, sparing those who don’t from unnecessary treatments and their associated side effects and reducing antibiotic resistance. We also need to improve how we prevent infections (for example, with vaccines), and identify those most at risk of developing severe disease, so we can protect these high-risk patients, develop better treatments and target NHS resources appropriately. BioAID is a very valuable resource to infectious diseases researchers, because it links high quality clinical data about the patient with blood samples that provide information about their immune response to infection and information about the infecting microbe itself. Participants are recruited and sampled when they first arrive in hospital, which is the key moment when doctors make decisions on diagnosis and treatment. Accessing and utilising specific clinical data that is missing from the BioAID database, will enable us to use BioAID to its full potential, catalysing infectious diseases research. Infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance disproportionately affect disadvantaged and deprived communities. By including ethnically and socially diverse North West London patients, BioAID facilitates more inclusive and relevant ID research. This will ultimately lead to better ID diagnostics, treatments and vaccines for these communities. For example, a current BioAID project studying infection in the elderly will provide much needed scientific knowledge about this key population who are often excluded from research.

Public Health Research

20/11/2025

Not applicable

Not applicable

One-off

TRE