UCL receives £3.8m for internationally-recognised healthcare research centre

A UCL-led interdisciplinary research consortium, i-sense 'IRC Next Steps', has been allocated more than £3.8m in government funding for pioneering developments of agile early warning sensing systems for infectious disease and antimicrobial resistance. Science Minister Jo Johnson announced £11m additional funding for the three Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations (IRCs) today. Led by Professor Rachel McKendry at UCL, i-sense is an interdisciplinary research collaboration on the cusp of revolutionising the way we track, test and treat infectious disease globally. "Since i-sense received its original £11m in funding from EPSRC in October 2013, we have been working to harness the power of mobile phones, biomedical engineering, nanotechnology, genomics and big data to detect diseases much earlier than ever before, help people gain faster access to care and protect populations," said Professor McKendry (London Centre for Nanotechnology at UCL). Recent outbreaks of Ebola and Zika viruses have exposed the world's vulnerability to emerging infectious diseases and further highlighted the urgent need for early warning systems. "The follow on funding will maximise the impact of the current i-sense IRC, retaining key staff and delivering a step change in new capabilities to respond to emerging infections," said Professor McKendry. EPSRC's IRCs are centres of internationally acknowledged scientific and technological excellence, bringing together researchers, clinicians, industry and other professionals to make a real impact in areas of key future industrial relevance to the UK.