Mechanisms of Severe Acute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC)
Over the summer months of 2009 the CRI Director, Professor Peter Openshaw, worked with colleagues from the CRI and throughout the UK on developing a network of collaborators to set-up a UK wide research programme into swine flu.
As a result, Imperial College was awarded £2.7m by the Welcome Trust to fund a series of longer term collaborative research studies on a single set of hospitalised individuals which will lead to a wealth of information and the cross correlations between different research outputs and provide unprecedented opportunity for understanding the pathogenesis of influenza. The MOSAIC network comprises of an unique group of internationally renowned scientists from England and Scotland who will together focus on studying over 250 people hospitalised between November 2009 and February 2011. Such a large-scale project has never before been attempted and the researchers in the network will work together to integrate the many recent advances in biomedical science that relate to understanding how influenza causes disease. The ultimate goal of this collaborative, intensive study is to discover new and effective treatments and to develop better vaccines that can be used in future outbreaks. By integrating the information that we will gather, we will create a unique overview of how influenza causes illness and what might be done to improve patient management.
MOSAIC was officially launched on Wednesday 11th November 2009 and further details are available on the News and Events page.
