Genetic determinants of cardiovascular disease and high-dimensional traits
EPIC-CVD: the EPIC-Heart/EPIC-CVD study, a pan-European study of incident coronary disease and stroke including participants from 23 Centres across 10 European countries. This project has a wealth of genetic, biochemical and risk factor data, which are predominantly utilised for the study of gene-environment interaction, cardiovascular risk prediction, and genetic discovery.
Improving the safety and efficiency of blood donation: blood transfusions save millions of lives every year around the world. But the evidence needed to improve the safety and efficiency of blood donation is weak and underdeveloped, risking harm and waste. Working with blood donors, regularly transfused patients, members of the public, blood services and other key stakeholders, our research studies (link to https://www.donorhealth-btru.nihr.ac.uk/) INTERVAL, COMPARE, STRIDES, Shape-PLASMA address major challenges identified by NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) on recruitment and retention of healthy donors
Blood Donor Health
Donated blood is a crucial resource for healthcare systems, enabling blood transfusions that save millions of lives every year around the world. But the evidence needed to improve the safety and efficiency of blood donation is weak and underdeveloped, risking harm and waste.
Our research at the Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Donor Health and Behaviour (BTRU-DH&B) addresses these challenges about blood donation and produces evidence-based strategies benefiting both blood donors and patients. We achieve this through close collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), blood donors and members of the public as well as by active engagement with policy-makers.
Our overarching aim is to address strategic needs identified by NHSBT and to produce evidence-based strategies to improve the safety and efficiency of donation, while ensuring sustainability of blood services. We identify risk factors and evaluate measures to prevent adverse health effects of donation, both in blood and plasma donors, and develop novel approaches for recruitment and retention of donors, maximising blood collection while maintaining donor health.