Our research
Our research group focuses on clinical optimisation and precision diagnostics for severe infections such as sepsis and COVID-19. Our work can be divided into: 1) Improved clinical diagnostics and monitoring; 2) Optimised microbiological diagnostics; 3) Understanding host response, immune function, and clinical progression; 4) Adjuvant treatment for sepsis.
Improved clinical diagnostics and monitoring
Our group works with clinical tools for diagnosing sepsis. We have developed sepsis alert and automatic calculation of the sepsis index SOFA within the electronic health record system TakeCare. We are also working on monitoring the sepsis population and the COVID-19 population. We are working on the development of a national electronic monitoring system for the sepsis population.
Optimised microbiological diagnostics
Our group collaborates with other groups to evaluate and implement new microbiological diagnostic methods.
Understanding host response, immune function, and clinical progression
Our group has long been working on the structured collection of blood samples from patients with bacterial infections, sepsis and COVID-19, for biobanks. We have linked detailed clinical data to the samples. We use these sample collections with linked data for various studies of the host response, including inflammation and immune function. We collaborate with various groups on cell analysis, gene analysis, RNA analysis and protein analysis. In addition, we develop and evaluate clinically useful biomarkers.
Adjuvant treatment for sepsis
The established treatment for sepsis focuses on treating the infection with antibiotics and targeted interventions against the focus of infection, as well as organ support treatment. There is no treatment targeted at the dysregulated host response. Through our studies of host response, immune function, and clinical progression, we hope to identify treatable dysregulated processes associated with sepsis. We also participate in randomised and controlled studies of adjuvant treatment such as corticosteroids, whereby we also collect samples for our biobank for studies of host response and immune function.