Infectious disease is the single biggest cause of death worldwide. New infectious agents, such as the SARS, MERS and other novel coronavirus, novel influenza viruses, viruses causing viral haemorrhagic fever (e.g. Ebola), and viruses that affect the central nervous system (CNS) such as TBEV require investigation to understand pathogen biology and pathogenesis in the host. Even for known infections, resistance to antimicrobial therapies is widespread, and treatments to control potentially deleterious host responses are lacking. In order to develop a ...

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The UK Adult ITP Registry aims to collect clinical data (co-morbid conditions, ITP-specific treatments, laboratory results, and bleeding events) and biological samples (whole blood [15 mL, ~EDTA] or saliva [Oragene saliva kit])on adult patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) in an effort to investigate outstanding questions in disease progression, treatment effectiveness, and co-morbid burden. An overview of our study protocol may be found in the document “UKITP Study Protocol 2.1” on the Adult Registry page of our study website, www.ukitpregistry.com

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Coronary artery disease (reduced blood supply to the heart) and non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy (structural changes of the heart) are major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Although magnetic resonance imaging of the heart (CMR) plays a vital role in the assessment of these disease; current CMR machines in clinical practice and research (1.5 and 3-Tesla) are far from optimal. This important issue can potentially be addressed by CMR at higher magnetic fields (7-Tesla), which has been scarcely investigated. This study will ...

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Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disorder characterised by hypertrophy (thickening) of the heart muscle. It affects 1 in 500 individuals and is the commonest cause of sudden cardiac death in children and young adults. While the majority of patients remain asymptomatic, many develop complications, such as sudden death and heart failure. Reliable methods to distinguish who will remain well and who will be devastated by disease complications are lacking. Fibre disarray, a hallmark of HCM, has long been assumed ...

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Most tumours that start in the pituitary gland are adenomas which are non cancerous (benign). Some pituitary tumours make extra hormones that can cause symptoms. They are sometimes called neuroendocrine tumours. Very rarely, several members of the same family have a pituitary gland tumour. We know from research that there can be a gene that is abnormal in some of these families. Researchers want to study this and other genes to understand more about how these tumours develop. In this study, they ...

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Babies admitted to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are subjected to many invasive, and potentially painful clinical procedures each day as part of their essential medical care. Pain is an important clinical issue, and assessment and management of pain in this vulnerable population presents considerable challenges. Improving our understanding of when and how newborns and premature babies process pain has important consequences for neonatal care. In this Wellcome Trust funded study we aim to investigate the early development of ...

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This project aims to improve short and long term outcomes for children and young people with Wilms (WT) and other childhood renal tumours through the introduction of a more ‘personalised’ approach to risk stratification. This will include biological characterisation of tumour, blood and urine samples to better define the molecular pathways involved, particularly in high risk, ‘blastemal type’ Wilms tumour. There will be central review of tumour pathology and of any imaging studies (scans) performed in ‘real time’, to test ...

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Primary systemic vasculitidies (PSV), encompassing Anti-Neutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody (ANCA) associated vasculitis and medium vessel vasculitis, are relatively uncommon diseases, but have a propensity for renal involvement and account for a significant number of patients with both acute and chronic kidney disease. The aetiology of PSV is unknown and current therapies are non-specific and associated with major side effects. Outcome data for such patients have comprised small cohort studies from single centres. Understanding the factors that influence disease outcome and the ...

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Is to perform basic research into the causes of arthritis and other inflammatory diseases, and help to develop preventative and therapeutic interventions. We use patient blood and waste tissue from surgical interventions to set up explant cultures to characterise the cells involved in the disease process, identify novel gene signatures and to test new therapies.

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Coronary artery disease (CAD) and its consequences are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the UK, leading to major healthcare and economic burdens. Although our understanding of CAD has improved greatly during the last 20 years, there remain major unanswered questions about the fatty deposits (atherosclerotic plaques) in the coronary artery, and how the narrowed or blocked artery causes heart muscle damage. A patient may present with symptoms at any stage of the disease, from chronic narrowing of artery ...

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