Birmingham BRC joins new national collaboration to tackle infection and antimicrobial resistance

Experts from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) will play a key role in a newly launched national initiative to address one of the most pressing global health challenges: infection and antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

The NIHR has launched a new Translational Research Collaboration (TRC) in Infection and AMR, bringing together leading researchers from across the UK to accelerate the development of innovative solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat infections – particularly those caused by drug-resistant pathogens.

The NIHR Birmingham BRC will contribute to this collaboration through the expertise of Professor Alan McNally, co-lead of our Infection and Acute Care theme. Professor McNally is Professor in Microbial Genomics at the University of Birmingham’s School of Infection, Inflammation and Immunology, and his work focuses on the evolutionary genomics of pathogenesis and antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens.

“This new collaboration gives us a unique opportunity to pool expertise, infrastructure and innovation across the UK to deliver real-world solutions that improve patient care and public health.”

Professor Alan McNally, University of Birmingham

Alongside colleagues from Oxford and Leeds, Professor McNally will co-lead the TRC’s Diagnostics and Precision Medicine workstream, which will focus on integrating host- and pathogen-based diagnostics, metagenomic technologies, and real-world data to personalise treatments, improve early detection, and guide clinical decision-making.

Professor McNally said:

“Antimicrobial resistance is one of the defining health challenges of our time. This new collaboration gives us a unique opportunity to pool expertise, infrastructure and innovation across the UK to deliver real-world solutions that improve patient care and public health.”

The new TRC will focus on three critical questions:

• What new solutions can we develop to prevent and treat infections?
• How can we improve clinical decision-making?
• How can we ensure the right treatment is used at the right time?

Hosted by the NIHR BRC at Imperial College London, the TRC will create a coordinated national pipeline for translational research in infection and AMR. It will engage partners from industry, public bodies, charities, funders and SMEs, with current collaborators including Moderna, UKHSA, MHRA, the Wellcome Trust, and UKRI.

Professor Marian Knight, NIHR Scientific Director for Infrastructure said:

“Antimicrobial resistance is an area which needs urgent research across multi-professional teams working with the public and industry. The NIHR is uniquely positioned to bring together the right people and partnerships to tackle it.”

“This exciting new addition to our TRC network, in a crucial area of research, has the potential to drive the game-changing research we need.”

What are TRCs?

TRCs are collaborative groups of experts from across the UK formed via NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs). They act as hubs, rallying research communities across the UK. They bring together their relevant experience to tackle translational research challenges in their specific areas of focus. 

Professor Graham Cooke, Chair of the new TRC in Infection and Antimicrobial Resistance, said:

“We will reinvigorate, and unify, for the first time, the broad expertise in infection and AMR across the experimental medicine and early phase research infrastructure in the UK into a cohesive, dynamic partnership. This will facilitate industry engagement and further collaboration, contributing towards increasing the UK’s capacity and capability in this critical research field.”