Chief Scientist Office (Funding AgeTech) ^{Non-funding Support}

Entity: Chief Scientist Office (Scotland)
Category: Non-funding support
Description: In 2015-6 CSO has a budget of almost £69 million to invest in NHS related research and support. Key activities for CSO are

- Funding high quality research relevant to NHSScotland on the recommendation of the Research - Advisory Committee. At any one time CSO is funding around 120 research projects
supporting research in NHSScotland through the NRS (NHS Research Scotland) partnership
contributing to funding of research awarded through the NIHR Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC)
- Building and implementing a Health Research Strategy for NHSScotland
promoting the dissemination and implementation of research findings
encouraging strong research ethics appraisal and research governance
supporting a number of research units across Scotland participating in a number of Scottish and UK-wide health research initiatives including public representation in our decision making processes responsibility for policy relating to Intellectual property arising from research in NHSScotland

1. Project: 'ASTERIX: Adaptive Salvage Treatment based on Endotype-directed anti-viRals and Immunomodulation – an NHS framework to enable research and clinical trials'
Summary: Scotland is well-positioned to contribute to the urgent need for COVID-19 treatments. To do this we need to understand the disease and quickly bring new treatments to Scottish patients in trials. The ASTERIX framework will be integrated into clinical systems so that frontline staff are not burdened, using repurposed NHS infrastructure and staff. ASTERIX will allow us to learn quickly, while under huge clinical pressures, and streamline patients into trials. This learning will include how to treat COVID-19 and how to ensure that critical trial results are robust and relevant to Scottish patients.

Led by:
. Professor Kevin Blyth, NHSGGC, University of Glasgow
. Professor Iain McInnes, University of Glasgow

Co-investigator and institutions:
.Professor Andrew Biankin, University of Glasgow
.Professor Rob Jones, CRUK Glasgow CTU, University of Glasgow
.Professor Emma Thomson, MRC University of Glasgow Centre of Virus Research
.Dr Janet Scott, MRC University of Glasgow Centre of Virus Research
.Professor Carl Goodyear, University of Glasgow
.Clare Orange, NHSGGC Biorepository
.Dr David Lowe, National Clinical Lead for Digital Health & Clinical Informatics DHI, NHSGGC
.Dr Michael Murphy, Microbiology, NHSGGC

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£17,000

2. Project: 'Glasgow Early Treatment Arm FavIpiravir (GETAFIX)'
A randomized controlled study of favipiravir as an early treatment arm of ASTERIX in COVID-19 hospitalized patients.

Led by:
. Dr Janet Scott, MRC - University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR), University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions:
. Professor Emma Thomson, CVR, NHSGGC, University of Glasgow
. Professor Kevin Blyth, NHSGGC, University of Glasgow
. Professor Rob Jones, CRUK Glasgow CTU, University of Glasgow
. Professor Jim Paul, CRUK Glasgow CTU, University of Glasgow
. Dr Glen Burley, Department of Chemistry, University of Strathclyde
. Dr Samantha Carmichael, NHSGGC

Project summary
Favipiravir is used in Japan to treat influenza and can kill SARS-CoV2 in the laboratory4. The drug is safe in healthy volunteers and reached concentrations in the body needed to kill the virus. In China, 35 COVID-19 patients treated with Favipiravir recovered in 4 days compared to those treated with Lopinavir/ritonavir (45 patients) who took 11 days. We propose to treat COVID-19 patients with Favipiravir to see if it improves their chances of recovery without needing admission to intensive care, study what happens once Favipiravir is metabolised by the body, and check for drug resistance.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£156,510

3. Project: 'Hypertension, inhibitors of the renin angiotensin system and COVID-19'

Led by:
.Professor Rhian Touyz, Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions:
From the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, Queen Elizabeth University Hospital:

.Professor Anna Dominiczak
.Professor Christian Delles
.Professor Tomasz Guzik
.Professor Sandosh Padmanabhan
.Dr Linsay McCallum

Project summary
There is a lot of coverage in the media that certain drugs to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) may worsen COVID-19. However, there is no clinical evidence to support this and there is much confusion for both patients and doctors. Many patients are stopping their hypertension medication, which is dangerous as this could lead to severe heart disease and even death. Our study will examine if hypertensive patients have more severe COVID-19 than patients who do not have pre-existing hypertension. We will also assess if certain blood pressure drugs aggravate or improve infection. This is especially important in Scotland where the rate of hypertension is high. Our study will provide information to guide doctors and patients in the coming months as we treat COVID.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£79,846

4. Project: 'Cardiac Imaging in SARS Coronavirus disease-19 (CISCO-19)'

Led by:
. Professor Colin Berry, Cardiology & Imaging, University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions:
. R Wereski, UofE
. D Lower, Clinical Informatics, A&E
. C Church, Pulmonary Vasc Disease
. K Mangion, Cardiology
. A Ho, MRC, University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
. G Roditi, Radiologist
. C Bagot, Haemostatis
. S Wright, Cardiac Pathologist
. Professor A McConnachie, Robert Centre for Biostatistics
. Professor R Touyz, University of Glasgow
. Professor C Delles, University of Glasgow
. Professor N Sattar, Vasc Biomedicine, MHSGGC, University of Glasgow

Project summary
One-in-four patients with COVID-19 pneumonia develop life-threatening heart problems. Our research idea is that virus can directly infect the heart. We will study which patients are at-risk of heart injury and why only some patients suffer heart problems. MRI scans help doctors identify heart damage and its causes and explain NHS tests eg troponin. During a 3-month period, hospitalised patients with COVID-19 will have blood tests and then a heart-lung scan after discharge. We will clarify links between the heart/lungs & risk factors to support development of preventive therapies.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£47,940

5. Project 'CARP: COVID-19 Advanced Respiratory Physiological Platform'

Led by
.Dr Chris Carlin, NRS Senior Investigator, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC)

Co-investigators and institutions:
. Dr David Lowe, WoS Innovation Clinical Lead
. Dr Malcolm Sim, NRS Senior Investigator, NHSGGC

SME Partners:

. Dr Bruce Henderson, Forensic Physician / Owner Altair Medical
. Mr Paul McGinness, Director
. Dr Shane Burns, PhD, Lead Data Scientist StormID

Project summary
Patients with COVID-19 pneumonia are at risk for sudden deterioration. Altair wearable sensor measures breathing events to monitor patients at risk for opiate overdose. The Lenus platform (StormID) is established in NHSGGC for integration and analysis of clinical and sensor data in respiratory patients. We will re-orientate this to gather data about respiratory failure during COVID-19 and develop a dashboard with real-time respiratory monitoring and threshold alerts to monitor COVID-19 patients.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total Award
£123,850

6. Project: 'Viral and Immunological Correlates of Clinical Severity and Response to Anti-Viral Therapy for COVID-19'

Led by
. Professor Carl Goodyear, University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions.
University of Glasgow:

Professor Massimo Palmarini
Professor Iain McInnes
Professor Brian Willett
Professor Emma Thomson
Professor Gerard Graham
Professor Paul Garside
Professor Naveed Sattar
Professor Andrew Biankin
Professor David Robertson
Dr Janet Scott
Dr Antonia Ho
Dr Thomas Otto
Dr Ana Da Silva Filipe

GGCHB NHS:

Dr Michael Murphy

Project summary: The clinical outcome of COVID-19 is ultimately determined by viral replication in the face of the host immunity. The latter can either control viral infection or exacerbate disease due to uncontrolled inflammatory processes that damages tissues. Hence, in order to establish the efficacy of antiviral therapies and determine whether stratification can aid clinical decisions in COVID19 patients, we need to identify correlates of disease severity and response to treatment. This proposal aims to fully determine the dynamic viral and immunological changes occurring during the different clinical stages of COVID-19. We will use a clinical trial for Favipiravir (GETAFIX, GLA3), an antiviral drug as our test case to develop our biomarkers but can roll this project out to support other trials within ASTERIX (GLA2).

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£319,473

7. Project: 'Markers of disease: identifying bacterial secondary infections in COVID+ patients'

Led by:
Professor Andrew Roe, University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions:

Professor Michael Barrett, University of Glasgow
Professor Alistair Leonard, University of Glasgow, NHS
Dr Malcolm Sim, NHS
Dr Malcolm Watson, NHS

Project summary: The current COVID pandemic has led to an urgent need to better understand how and why certain patients become seriously ill or die. Secondary bacterial infections are a major contributing factor in a proportion of these more serious cases. Using our established methods to study bacterial sepsis, we want to analyse COVID+ patients and perform metabolomics to measure key markers we know are associated with bacterial infection. The result: more accurate and appropriate diagnosis and allocation of anti-bacterial treatment. We will select the most common examples of Gram positive and Gram negative organisms associated with secondary infections for detailed analysis.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£56,970

8. Project: 'Understanding longer-term health impacts of social distancing and behavioural interventions introduced to prevent the spread of infection in the population'

Led by:
Dr Katie Robb, University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions:

Professor Rory O'Connor, University of Glasgow

Project summary: People have had to change drastically how they live their lives to achieve social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. There is growing concern that social distancing and other quarantining measures introduced by Government will adversely affect general population health and mental health. This proposal aims to understand the nature of the impact of such measures on Scottish people by: i) identifying the key health and mental health concerns and; ii) examining how people’s experiences change over the first 4-months of social distancing. The findings will inform future Government policy and action to prevent or mitigate any adverse effects.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£37,000

9. Project: 'Social & health impacts of COVID-19 suppression on vulnerable groups'

Led by:
Professor Sarah Armstrong, University of Glasgow
Dr Lucy Pickering, University of Glasgow

Co-investigators and institutions
University of Glasgow:

Dr Oona Brooks Hay
Dr Chris Bunn
Dr Nicola Burns
Dr Alicia Davis
Dr Caitlin Gormley
Dr Nughmana Mirza
Dr Gareth Mulvey
Dr Ida Norberg
Dr Teresa Piacentini
Dr Kristina Saunders
Dr Marguerite Schinkel
Dr Phillippa Wiseman
Professor Michele Burman
Professor Nick Watson
Professor Jude Robinson
Professor Fergus McNeill

Project summary: This research will investigate the impact of behavioural measures in response to COVID-19 on four key vulnerable groups in Scotland and the organisations that support them. It will identify challenges and adaptations, employing qualitative methodologies. Research evidence will be continuously disseminated via a website and outcomes will include developing resources to inform policy development, improve worker training, and support third sector organisations.

Funder
Chief Scientist Office

Total award
£186,869