‘Superbugs’ and life-threatening lung infection in Cystic Fibrosis

About the consortium

The UK Cystic Fibrosis Microbiology Consortium brings together scientists and clinicians with internationally recognised experience of CF lung disease and complementary expertise. Funded by grants from the Big Lottery Fund and the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, the consortium, led by Professor John Govan of the University of Edinburgh's Centre for Infectious Diseases, is undertaking a programme of research that aims to promote the social and economic inclusion of children and young adults with cystic fibrosis. This research will focus on three major areas that are of imminent and important clinical relevance to people with CF:

1. Early and rapid diagnosis of pulmonary infections to enable rapid implementation of appropriate antibiotic therapies and infection control procedures
2. Use of bacterial genomics to identify and characterize genes and gene clusters responsible for virulence and transmission of the major CF pathogens
3. Characterization of the mechanisms of resistance to antimicrobial agents that are evident in the major CF pathogens, and the development of novel antimicrobials and / or antimicrobial combinations
   

For full details of the research programme, see Research.

Ultimately, this research programme seeks to prevent the exclusion caused by the current infection control policy of segregation by improving the speed and accuracy of diagnosis and treatment of respiratory infections within the CF lung.