Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
Molecular detection of multiple (viral and bacterial) pathogens in clinical
and environmental samples
Contact person details
Name:
FAIRLEY , Derek ( Dr)
Position:
Research Scientist
Name of
Organisation:
Regional Virus Laboratory, Royal Hospitals Trust
URL:
E-mail:
Contact
Telephone:
+44-2890-635303
Fax number:
Collaboration
Type: Company Expertise
Title: Molecular detection of multiple (viral and bacterial) pathogens in clinical and
environmental samples
Participation: Type A
Type Details: The Regional Virus Laboratory (RVL) is based at the Royal Victoria
Hospital, and provides a comprehensive regional service for detection and diagnosis
of viral infections (and certain bacterial infections) for all hospitals and general
practitioners in Northern Ireland.
The laboratory currently processes requests from over 1600 individual users
(hospital consultants and general practitioners) and from all health service trusts in
Northern Ireland. A broad range of diagnostic tests are in use, and over 40,000
molecular assays (for pathogen detection) and 80,000 serological assays (for
pathogen detection or patient immunity) are completed annually.
In addition, the RVL provides sequence-based viral genotyping services and a public
health virology service for the investigation of outbreaks of infectious disease. It is
part of the European Influenza Surveillance Scheme (EISS), and is a designated
WHO influenza laboratory for diagnosis and research. The laboratory also maintains
a unique epidemiological database of all diagnosed viral and atypical bacterial
infections in Northern Ireland.
The RVL has been at the forefront of developing and clinically validating new
molecular diagnostic tests, and bringing these tests into routine use. The laboratory
was the first regional service in the UK to switch completely from traditional tissue
culture to using PCR and real-time PCR methods for diagnosis of respiratory viral
infections. As well as new PCR-based molecular assays, the RVL is also developing
novel microarray-based multipathogen assays, bacterial and viral T-RFLP and
fragment analysis methods, MALDI-TOF nucleic acid mass spectrometry methods
and rapid isothermal amplification assays for point-of-care use - along with
bioinformatics infrastructure to support these new methods.
Programme: FP7 , FP7-KBBE , FP7-HEALTH
Instruments: CP Collaborative project (generic),CSA Coordination and support
actions,CP-FP Small or medium-scale focused research project,CP-IP Large-scale
integrating project,CP-TP Collaborative Project targeted to a special group (such as
SMEs),CP-SICA Collaborative project for specific cooperation actions dedicated to
international cooperation partner countries (SICA)
Research interest:
Expiry Date: 2009-01-13
Workprogramme area(s)/key action(s):
Target Partner
Expertise:
We would particularly like to make contacts with academic or SME partners who
have expertise in any of the following areas:
-
diagnostic instrument platforms
laboratory automation and liquid handling
high-throughput screening methods
microfluidics and lab-on-chip technology
point-of-care and near-patient testing
patient genotyping
Country: Österreich, Belgique-België, Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera, Ceska Republika,
Deutschland, Danmark, Eesti, España, Suomi/Finland, France, Hellas, Magyarorszag,
Éire/Ireland, Ísland, Italia, Lietuva, Luxembourg (Grand-Duché), Latvija, Malta,
Nederland, Polska, Portugal, Sverige, Slovenija, Slovenska Republika
Organization Details
Name:
Regional Virus Laboratory, Royal Hospitals Trust
Department:
Regional Virology Laboratory, Microbiology Department
Address:
Belfast
UNITED KINGDOM
Type:
Research, Other
Number of
Employees:
> 500
Details:
SIC Codes:
Biotechnology , Life Sciences , Medical biotechnology ,
Medicine, Health , Scientific Research
Keywords:
pathogen
viral
bacterial
molecular
diagnostic
PCR
microarray
clinical
microbiology
infection
Partners already
acquired:
Record control number: 74706
Quality validation date: 2008-01-14
CORDIS RTD-Partners / © European Communities.