Centre for Infection and Immunity
Health Sciences Building
97 Lisburn Road
Belfast BT9 7BL
Jenny Bell is currently the Improving Children’s Lives Postdoctoral Fellow (Epidemiological Research), with Professor Mike Shields and Professor Frank Kee within the Department of Child Health/Centre for Public Health, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences.
Based in the Centre for Infection & Immunity her post has involved working alongside a research team to obtain ethical approval for an Infectious Disease BioArchive to enable further clinical research. Research proposals have and are being developed to improve diagnostic tools not only in Northern Ireland but in the developing world. The key focus is to deliver and manage rapid near-patients tests for meningococcal disease (MD) in children. This research is crucial as the consequence of not diagnosing MD early may be limb amputation and sepsis which can lead to death. Conversely if an incorrect diagnosis is made children may be unnecessarily treated with antibiotics increasing future risk of antibiotic resistance.