Chris Illingworth
@chrisillingworth.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer at the MRC University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research.
A link to our study on air cleaning is given here: tinyurl.com/ydutjafs. We published a small study on staff on COVID wards wearing FFP3 masks here: elifesciences.org/articles/71131. Staff-to-patient COVID transmission likely does happen, but not very often: elifesciences.org/articles/67308
Efficacy of Air Cleaning Units for preventing SARS-CoV-2 and other hospital-acquired infections on medicine for older people wards: a quasi-experimental controlled before-and- after study - Repository...
Background:
Nosocomial infections are costly and airborne transmission is increasingly recognised as important for spread. Air Cleaning Units (ACUs) may reduce transmission but little research has foc...
tinyurl.com
August 27, 2025 at 8:14 AM
A link to our study on air cleaning is given here: tinyurl.com/ydutjafs. We published a small study on staff on COVID wards wearing FFP3 masks here: elifesciences.org/articles/71131. Staff-to-patient COVID transmission likely does happen, but not very often: elifesciences.org/articles/67308
This paper began life as Lauren Stewart’s MSc Bioinformatics project at the University of Glasgow. Builds on research on UDCA and ACE2 expression by Teresa Brevini and Fotios Sampaziotis in Cambridge, and ongoing collaboration with Stephanie Evans at UKHSA.
August 26, 2025 at 4:48 AM
This paper began life as Lauren Stewart’s MSc Bioinformatics project at the University of Glasgow. Builds on research on UDCA and ACE2 expression by Teresa Brevini and Fotios Sampaziotis in Cambridge, and ongoing collaboration with Stephanie Evans at UKHSA.
a) MRC Units do some good science. Whether the output of some or all Units justifies the investment made feels like a matter for genuine debate.
b) Highlighting the age, race, and gender of one person in this debate feels ad hominem. Is there room for an evidence-based consideration of the matter?
b) Highlighting the age, race, and gender of one person in this debate feels ad hominem. Is there room for an evidence-based consideration of the matter?
July 3, 2025 at 9:06 AM
a) MRC Units do some good science. Whether the output of some or all Units justifies the investment made feels like a matter for genuine debate.
b) Highlighting the age, race, and gender of one person in this debate feels ad hominem. Is there room for an evidence-based consideration of the matter?
b) Highlighting the age, race, and gender of one person in this debate feels ad hominem. Is there room for an evidence-based consideration of the matter?
True story: I once tried explaining this to a friend using a pack of cards. They chose a card at random. I removed 50 cards which were not the Ace of Spades. Now, do they want to swap or stick in order to get the Ace of Spades? Outcome: Their first choice was the Ace of Spades.
May 21, 2025 at 12:10 PM
True story: I once tried explaining this to a friend using a pack of cards. They chose a card at random. I removed 50 cards which were not the Ace of Spades. Now, do they want to swap or stick in order to get the Ace of Spades? Outcome: Their first choice was the Ace of Spades.
With chicken pox there's a vaccine available, so some potential for parental choice. That's probably an outlier case though pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
Burden of Respiratory Viruses in Children Less Than 2 Years Old in a Community-based Longitudinal US Birth Cohort
Respiratory viral infections are a major cause of morbidity and hospitalization in young children. Nevertheless, the population burden of respiratory viral infections, especially asymptomatic cases, i...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
May 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
With chicken pox there's a vaccine available, so some potential for parental choice. That's probably an outlier case though pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
After three years of undergrad, I still felt a long way off being able to read my Director of Studies' research in pure math.
February 21, 2025 at 10:49 AM
After three years of undergrad, I still felt a long way off being able to read my Director of Studies' research in pure math.
Thanks to our collaborators at Cambridge and UKHSA. Kudos to first-author Lauren, who took on this project as part of her MSc Bioinformatics course in Glasgow.
January 17, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Thanks to our collaborators at Cambridge and UKHSA. Kudos to first-author Lauren, who took on this project as part of her MSc Bioinformatics course in Glasgow.
Clinical implementation of either this or similar strategies is clearly a step beyond the scope of our work. We don’t recommend the use of UDCA in the absence of full clinical supervision.
January 17, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Clinical implementation of either this or similar strategies is clearly a step beyond the scope of our work. We don’t recommend the use of UDCA in the absence of full clinical supervision.
Different strategies for drug use could be considered. Our strategy was more effective at higher levels of community infection, when more people with SARS-CoV-2 were admitted to the hospital.
January 17, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Different strategies for drug use could be considered. Our strategy was more effective at higher levels of community infection, when more people with SARS-CoV-2 were admitted to the hospital.
We used simulated data describing SARS-CoV-2 cases in hospitals to assess a strategy of giving UDCA to patients following the detection of a case of SARS-CoV-2 on a ward. Under default model parameters this produced a 16% reduction in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
January 17, 2025 at 12:01 PM
We used simulated data describing SARS-CoV-2 cases in hospitals to assess a strategy of giving UDCA to patients following the detection of a case of SARS-CoV-2 on a ward. Under default model parameters this produced a 16% reduction in SARS-CoV-2 transmission.