New Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection launched at St George’s

Published: 18 May 2022

The new Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection (CNPI) at St George’s, University of London has been successfully launched at an event earlier this month.

The event celebrated the history of the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research Group (PIDRG) which began ten years ago, focusing on preventing and treating serious infections in babies and children. Highlighting the work of the group, which has since expanded significantly, the event also considered the future vision of the now transitioned new Centre.

Deputy Principal for Research and Enterprise at St George’s, Professor Jon Friedland, provided an introduction to the launch event speaking on behalf of the Principal, Professor Jenny Higham.

“I have no doubt that this centre will be a major success going forward, and will provide strong support in tackling neonatal and paediatric infection,” he said. “By establishing a new Centre here at St George’s, we hope to accelerate progress even further in meeting our goals to improve healthcare through research.”

There was an insightful round table discussion with the lead investigators for the Centre, highlighting the current collaborations of the Centre’s large multi-disciplinary team and next steps to further external collaborations and improve the scientific communication and public engagement.

Professor Kirsty Le Doare, one of the three Centre leads, alongside Professor Mike Sharland  and Professor Paul Heath, said: “We are delighted to launch the new Centre for Neonatal and Paediatric Infection. After years of success in translational research that has transformed the care of children around the world, we see this new Centre as a launchpad for generating even more success in the years to come.”

Please find a link of the recording of the event here.

The CNPI includes several research groups, including:

• A laboratory group
• A group focusing on vaccine preventable infections
• A data analytics group
• A global antimicrobial resistance trials group
• A statistics and bioinformatics group

The Centre has over 70 staff, with a clear focus remaining on defining novel vaccine, prevention and antimicrobial strategies to combat severe infections, which sadly remain common in vulnerable populations globally.

Find out more about the CNPI on the newly launched website.