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Professor of Infectious Diseases
University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Robert Read is Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Southampton, and Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases at University Hospital Southampton. An NIHR Senior Investigator, he is Director (2017-2022) of the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), and leads the Microbial Science cross cutting theme of the BRC. He is a research leader with a track record of discoveries in infectious disease. In MRC, NIHR, Wellcome Trust, and EU funded research, Read currently conducts research in patients presenting with acute infection syndromes and uses controlled human infection models to investigate microbial pathogenesis, mucosal immunity and novel diagnostics. This includes engineering novel bacterial medicines to modify the microbiome. In parallel with this, Read collaborates with engineers to test novel diagnostic technologies.
Read has an international profile in Infectious Diseases research, translation and policy, which is reflected by his role as Chair of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID) Science Committee (2009-2012) and election to the ESCMID Executive Council (2005-2012). The Infectious Disease Society of America nominated him to deliver the 2016 IDSA Max Finland Award Lecture, the first non-American to receive this honour. Translating research into policy, he has co-authored 4 pan-European Clinical Practice Guidelines including the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Lower Respiratory Tract Infection Guidelines (2010), the ERS Hospital Acquired Pneumonia Guidelines (2018) and the ESGIB/ESCMID Bacterial Meningitis Guidelines (2016). Nationally, he has contributed to the NIHR research portfolio by chairing the national Infectious Disease and Microbiology Specialty Group for the NIHR Clinical Research Network (2010-2015). He has contributed to international and national Grant Panels including as Chair of the Postdoctoral Awards Panel for the NIHR Academy (2010-2016). He was a founding member of the 2009 Department of Health (DoH) Influenza Clinical Infection Network (Flu-CIN), which coordinated a national research response to the 2009 Influenza pandemic and of ISARIC. His experience in meningococcal, influenza and pneumococcal disease research, and clinical trials expertise have led to membership of the UK Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) (since 2013), and expert advisory groups of the European Medicines Agency (2011-2016) and the Commission on Human Medicines (2008-2014). He is editor in Chief of Journal of Infection and Current Opinion in Infectious Disease.
Read has contributed research in molecular pathogenesis and genomics, and conducted clinical trials of vaccines and therapeutics, all with a common theme of prevention of lethal infectious disease. He has published over 250 peer reviewed papers with an H index of 67. His career total grant capture for research project awards is >£40m from diverse sources including EU, MRC, Wellcome Trust, NIHR, EPSRC, Department of Health, Meningitis Charities and Industry. He has made important discoveries relating to the molecular genetics and mechanisms of sepsis, and the role of bacterial genomic load in outcomes of meningococcal disease. In particular he has studied the mechanisms of bacterial colonisation of the upper respiratory tract, including controlled human infection models of Neisseria and Bordetella pertussis colonisation in human volunteers to study immunity and potential treatments to prevent colonisation. Recent important relevant activity includes an MRC-funded programme to manufacture and utilise genetically modified strains of N.lactamica to conduct early phase studies of microbiome-modification of the nasopharynx.
I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Friday, October 21, 2022
10:30 AM – 11:45 AM US ET