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Game-changing research for CF lung health
Back in 2017, we announced the funding for the first Innovation Hub based in Cambridge and led by Professor Andres Floto. We committed £5 million worth of support to this 5-year research programme, which the University of Cambridge matched pound for pound.
The Innovation Hub significantly advanced efforts to improve the management of lung infections for people living with CF – from generating new knowledge about how to prevent certain lung infections being passed on, to developing computer algorithms which can predict when a flare-up of infection (an exacerbation) will occur and identifying several new opportunities for antibiotic discovery.
This collaborative programme also brought world-class scientists into the field of CF research for the first time, and spring-boarded the careers of over 20 young researchers.
Find out more about the impact of the first Innovation Hub
The success of this Innovation Hub played a huge part in inspiring the creation of the Translational Innovation Hub Network for CF Lung Health and Infection, known as the CF Lung Health Network for short, funded in partnership with LifeArc.
LifeArc is a not-for-profit medical research organisation which supports researchers across academia and industry to help turn their ideas into real solutions for patients. The Trust started talking to LifeArc in the summer of 2021, one of the first projects was to organise an online workshop with the CF community.
The workshop with people living with cystic fibrosis was instrumental in shaping our priorities and highlighting where we could make the greatest impact.
Heather McKinnon, Head of the Chronic Respiratory Infection Translational Challenge, LifeArc
Addressing the challenge
We need to find better ways to diagnose and treat lung infections, tackle antimicrobial resistance, and stop the disruption that lung infections can cause to the lives of people with CF and their loved ones. However, it can take about 15–20 years for exciting research findings to lead to a new test or a new treatment becoming available for people to use. This time is spent gaining a better understanding of the results, testing ideas in the lab and clinical trials, and then scaling up the production of the product and meeting regulatory requirements. All these activities are collectively called translational research.
Translational research can be expensive and time-consuming, and many exciting results don’t result in new treatments or tests. LifeArc has lots of experience turning research ideas into new medicines, and they use their expertise to help speed up progress. They support researchers by giving advice, working together, providing funding, and offering access to lab facilities. Together LifeArc and the Trust agreed to fund a translational research network in cystic fibrosis.
The dream, for me, is to have less of a treatment burden and more time feeling like a valuable member of society.
Sarah, who has CF
The network
The aim of the CF Lung Health Network is to continue the successful model of the original Innovation Hub, but in a way that increases the impact for people with CF. The idea is to fund several Innovation Hubs across the UK, each of which will have a translational research programme centred around:
- developing new or repurposed treatments for CF lung infections and inflammation
- preventing and treating exacerbations
- diagnosing infections and inflammation.
The four Innovation Hubs are based at the Universities of Cambridge, Liverpool, Manchester and Imperial College London.
Working together
Collaboration is at the heart of the CF Lung Health Network, and includes programmes to engage and involve the CF community and industry, and to train and develop the next generation of CF researchers and scientists.
The network will be governed by both external scientific experts and members of the CF community, to make sure that the programme can deliver a positive impact for people with CF.
Let’s explore what each of the four Innovation Hubs will be researching:
Can we predict when a flare-up (exacerbation) will occur and what the best treatments are for each person?
The Flare-CF Innovation Hub, led by Professor Andres Floto at the University of Cambridge, aims to develop predictive tools which can identify early indicators of exacerbations (flare-ups) and help choose the best combination of antibiotics for each CF individual, to better personalise treatments and improve their effectiveness.
Ultimately, the Flare-CF Innovation Hub could help to reduce treatment burden for people with cystic fibrosis and help to limit side-effects, including antibiotic resistance.
If you’re growing more than one bug, how does this affect the best way to treat them?
The Precision-CF Innovation Hub, led by Professors Jane Davies and Darius Armstrong-James at Imperial College London, aims to improve the detection, diagnosis and treatment plans of lung infections in people with CF. They will do this by learning more about how different bugs living together in the lung affect each other and the person with CF, as well as exploring the development of new, acceptable tests for CF lung infections using a range of sample types.
Precision-CF hopes to improve health outcomes, reduce the negative impacts of lung infections for people with CF, and help bring us closer to having new and more effective clinical tests for CF lung infections – especially for people who don’t cough up sputum.
What factors influence when you get a flare-up of infection and how well you respond to treatment?
The Pulse-CF Innovation Hub, led by Professor Alex Horsley at the University of Manchester, aims to better understand the causes and triggers of exacerbations, and why people respond differently to treatment. The hope is that this will improve how these flareups are prevented and managed for each person with CF.
Could bacteriophage therapy be used to treat CF lung infections?
The Trailfinder-CF Innovation Hub, led by Professor Jo Fothergill at the University of Liverpool, aims to develop new and more tailored treatment approaches for CF lung infections, by developing phage therapy.
Trailfinder-CF hopes to identify and develop new ways to help doctors select the best treatments that can then be tested in future trials. By developing phage therapy for CF in the UK, this could offer an alternative treatment option for those with highly resistant infections, help to prevent antimicrobial resistance, and improve treatment effectiveness.
The legacy
CF has a huge impact on my daily life, it’s 24/7. The symptoms change from one day to the next. I think these Innovation Hubs are a fantastic opportunity to be able to change the way CF is managed.
Laura, person with CF and Patient Lead for Pulse CF
Our hope is that this exciting network can make a real difference for people like Laura and Sarah, and everyone in the CF community.
Find out more about the CF Lung Health Network and opportunities to get involved in trials
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