Cystic Fibrosis

Lung infections in patients with CF have been shown to have lots of different bugs that can survive despite antibiotics. We don’t know, however, how the different bugs interact with one another, how they survive antibiotics and what impact this has on patients with CF.

If infection is detected early, aggressive antimicrobial treatment can clear it, but any later, treatments are only able to keep infection at bay. It is thought that bacteria may initially live in the nose and sinuses before they move into the lungs and cause infection. Dr Jo Fothergill from the University of Liverpool was awarded a fellowship to determine if new technology can be used to identify bacteria in the nasal passageway by analysing respiratory samples from the lungs of patients with CF. She will also look at how these infecting bacteria interact and look for genes that might make them resistant to antibiotics – a devastating complication for CF patients. We hope that developing new diagnostic approaches for the earlier detection of infection and the rapid identification of antibiotic resistant bacteria could lead to better, earlier and more targeted treatments which will improve long-term outcomes for people living with CF.