Desregulação imunitária, infeção e resistência aos antibióticos

Our research group is a team of researchers from different backgrounds with experience in epidemiologic, clinical and translational research in the areas of sepsis and severe infection. Our team is part of different international research networks namely in Brazil (FIOCRUZ, IDOR, UFRGS), Denmark (University of Southern Denmark), and European networks (Nine-i, ENIRRI, COVAPID, UNITE COVID).

Our main aims are to develop and consolidate knowledge in the areas of sepsis and severe infection that could be useful in the clinical decision-making process at the bedside. In the next 5 years, we plan to work in the areas of sepsis and severe infection, namely diagnosis and its early prediction (with AI algorithms) as well as optimizing antibiotic dosing with local researchers and also from the University of Southern Denmark. An example is our participation in the design of a webapp as AIRSAPCE (https://airspace.esicm.org/my/home), a digital clinical decision support system. A similar app is being currently evaluated in an randomized trial where our group is also participating (NCT05841875). 

In the next few years, our team aims to start a newborn screening for congenital CMV infection in some hospitals in the Lisbon area, using an approach developed by our team and already used by other international teams, the saliva pool strategy. This approach has a significant cost reduction, but with similar sensitivity and specificity, when compared with the reference method. This would be the first step for the final objective, our contribution to a future universal newborn screening for this congenital infection.