Scientific information
Meningitis Research Foundation aims to defeat meningitis and septicaemia through vital scientific research.
All research applications are assessed through peer review by independent referees and the Foundation's Scientific Advisory Panel. The Foundation is a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities and has been awarded their Certificate of Best Practice in Peer Review.
There are currently 22 research projects in the programme. Since it was founded in 1989, the charity has awarded 122 research grants, leading to many advances in the prevention, detection and treatment of meningitis and septicaemia. The total value of the Foundation's investment in vital scientific research is over £13/€17.55 million. The following is a list of all research-active projects in the current financial year.
You can also access an archive listing completed projects since 1995.
The following list is of current research projects.
Click on the project titles for more information.
Prevention
The development of effective vaccines is key to eliminating meningitis and septicaemia. The Hib vaccine has nearly eliminated Hib meningitis, formerly the leading cause of meningitis in young children, from countries where it is used. The introduction of MenC, an effective vaccine against Group C meningococcal disease, has reduced meningococcal C disease rates by over 90% in the UK and Ireland. More recently, introduction of conjugate pneumococcal vaccine against the seven most common pneumococcal strains is reducing vaccine-type pneumococcal meningitis and septicaemia. However, there are more than 90 pneumococcal strains, and even with more advanced conjugate pneumococcal vaccines in development, a rise in non-vaccine type disease is inevitable. Therefore, research into more broadly protective pneumococcal vaccines remains essential. Group B meningococcal disease has long been the leading cause of life-threatening meningitis in the UK and Ireland, and it is still unchecked. MenB vaccines on the horizon are likely to reduce meningococcal B disease, but will not provide universal protection. For this reason, MenB vaccine research continues to be a top priority for the Foundation. A number of even more deadly forms of meningitis and septicaemia that are less common in the UK and Ireland cannot be prevented, and are important targets for research.
Detection
Clinical diagnosis of meningitis and septicaemia has always been difficult, because the early symptoms resemble those of milder infections. By the time the later, more specific signs appear, the disease may be so far advanced that there is little time left for life-saving treatment.
Laboratory diagnosis of meningitis has become increasingly complicated. One reason for this is that life-saving antibiotics kill bacteria in patients with suspected meningitis and septicaemia so that the traditional diagnostic method of growing bacterial cultures from samples of blood or of cerebrospinal fluid does not always work. It is important to develop rapid new techniques that do not rely on the presence of live bacteria. Speedy identification of the cause of infection can enable doctors to make life-saving decisions about the treatment of individual patients. It can also show when public health action is needed to prevent further cases.
Treatment
Despite increased awareness of symptoms, better antibiotics and improvements in intensive care, meningitis and septicaemia continue to take their toll, with a mortality rate of around ten percent, and serious disability, disfigurement and emotional trauma afflicting a proportion of survivors. Although a universally protective vaccine would eliminate the need for treatment, many potentially lethal forms of meningitis are not vaccine preventable. The Foundation's research strategy aims at finding new therapies and optimising the treatment of patients with meningitis and septicaemia to minimise death and disability, as well as improving the outlook for patients left with after effects once they have recovered from these diseases.
Prevention and treatment
Quite often the key to new strategies in meningitis research is to be found in ground-breaking research at a more basic, molecular and cellular level, which does not yet have an application to one aspect in particular. The Foundation also funds a number of projects at this level, which could potentially open new paths to clinical research, either into prevention or treatment of meningitis and septicaemia.
Surveillance
The Foundation also supports research that provides crucial information for the development of disease control policies. Public health strategy for control of meningitis and septicaemia must respond rapidly to changes in patterns of incidence and spread of infection.
Page last updated 23.07.08