The epidemiology of bacterial infections and their impact on human health

Summary

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a common bacterium that often harmlessly inhabits (“colonises”) human body sites, including nostrils, throat and skin, but can be pathogenic causing skin, wound, bloodstream (bacteraemia) and other infections. Infections surveillance data in England show increasing incidence of community-associated methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) bacteraemia, but the reasons are unknown.

Previous research in healthcare settings suggest risk factors for S. aureus bacteraemia include prior S. aureus colonisation, surgery, age, sex and certain pre-existing medical conditions. However, population-based studies of bacterial colonisation and infections in the community are few and limited in scale. Furthermore, while the links of infections and incidence of chronic diseases have been hypothesised, systematic large-scale research is limited.

We recently recruited a large cohort of 26,500 participants from three cohorts of 150,000 blood donors across England into the nasal S. aureus CARRIAGE study. As well as extensive microbial data, we have collected extensive human (“host”) data from questionnaires, molecular assays (eg, genomics) and geospatial data.

Project aims

The aim of this PhD project will be to conduct integrated analyses to understand the biological basis for S. aureus carriage and then further systematically assess the associations of S. aureus and other infections with incidences of infectious and chronic diseases using linked electronic health record data.

The powerful integrative analyses of the linked databases should yield insights that advance understanding of the epidemiology of bacterial infections and their impact on human health.

Contact details

Dr Stephen Kaptoge - skk22@cam.ac.uk

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

• PhD