The OUCRU Hanoi Research Team and the PCE team, in collaboration with the Students\u2019 Clinical Pharmacy Club, Hanoi University of Pharmacy successfully conducted the AMR Ambassador Competition on Monday, 12 January 2026, at Kim Lien High School, Hanoi.
IHTM students took part in the annual Scholars\u2019 Debate at the Oxford Union after months of dedicated debate training from alumni Lisha Jeena and Dennis Mazingi; the event focused on climate change, intergenerational justice and population health, and ended with lively audience engagement that showed how the programme helps students build advocacy skills and confidence in respectful public debate.
OUCRU\u2019s LAST ACT trial, published in Nature Medicine, is the first tuberculosis study to assess treatment based on host genetics. The trial tested whether dexamethasone could be withheld in patients with low- or medium-inflammatory LTA4H genotypes. Results showed no evidence that placebo was as effective as dexamethasone, which remained safe and modestly effective across genotypes. These findings support continued use of dexamethasone and highlight the need for better-targeted treatments for tuberculous meningitis.
The University of Oxford has licensed an investigational Rift Valley fever vaccine candidate to the Serum Institute of India (SII) as outbreaks of the disease continue in parts of West Africa. Professor George Warimwe leads the development of the ChAdOx1 RVF vaccine, now progressing from lab to field use. The initiative enables rapid vaccine production and testing, offering hope for controlling this neglected zoonotic disease.
A look back at first-term activities as Hilary Term begins for the 2025/26 IHTM cohort. With mock exams now completed, the new 2025/26 IHTM cohort begin Hilary Term with renewed focus, marking the transition from induction and foundational learning to the next phase of the IHTM MSc course.
Professor Francois Nosten, Director of MORU's Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), reflects on the decades he\u2019s spent on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, a place of relentless upheaval and quiet endurance. From the 1980s onward, he has lived amid war, displacement, and disease, building a fragile bridge between science and survival. He characterizes the border as a wound that never quite closes \u2013 people cross not for opportunity but to escape a state that devours its own. What he describes is not steady progress but a cycle of collapse and recovery, every advance shadowed by the return of violence and the onset of disease.
Professor Nicholas Day has been appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for his outstanding contributions to global health research in the Kings New Years Honours 2026. With a career spanning over three decades at OUCRU and MORU, his leadership in infectious disease research has significantly advanced health equity in low-resource settings.
In a settlement of bamboo cabins, among mango and jackfruit trees, the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit runs a secluded clinic known as 'TB Village.' Reachable only by dirt roads, this sanctuary provides critical treatment and quarantine for dozens of marginalized Burmese tuberculosis patients. Here, at SMRU, patients receive care for diseases like tuberculosis and malaria. The unit works to heal patients and prevent outbreaks from crossing borders, providing a lifeline of safety.
The GRAM Project invites health professionals, researchers, and policymakers to a webinar on 29 January: \u201cAMR Tools and Resources: An Introduction for Health Professionals and Researchers.\u201d The 90-minute session will showcase key tools including IHME\u2019s MICROBE platform, WHO\u2019s GLASS system, the AMR R package, and the GRAM\u2013IDDO AMR Data Repository. These open-access resources support evidence-based action on antimicrobial resistance, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Two identical sessions are offered to accommodate global participation.
Over more than a decade of leadership, Professor Guy Thwaites helped steer the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit through a period of strategic growth and increasing global relevance. Under his direction, OUCRU strengthened its focus on research driven by clinical need, expanded its regional footprint, and deepened its contribution to tackling some of the most pressing infectious disease challenges in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Researchers from Medicine Quality Research Group, the University of Oxford and their collaborators have developed and evaluated a novel low-cost, rapid method to identify heat-exposed sucrose-containing vaccines without the need for sophisticated laboratory equipment.
IRONMUM is one example of SMRU\u2019s long-standing collaboration with global partners to address critical health challenges in low- and middle-income settings. Through partnerships with institutions such as the University of Oxford and the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), SMRU conducts research that is firmly grounded in local realities, ensuring that preventive strategies and treatments are effective where they are needed most. Working on the Thailand\u2013Myanmar border since 1986, SMRU combines research, clinical care, and humanitarian action to improve the health of mothers, children, and vulnerable populations affected by infectious diseases and limited access to healthcare.
A landmark international research collaboration has launched the largest clinical trial ever conducted to test therapeutics for moderate-severe dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease that continues to spread rapidly driven by climate change and globalisation.
A new international consortium, MVC-2G, has been launched to develop a next-generation malaria vaccine offering broader protection by targeting multiple stages of the parasite\u2019s lifecycle. Co-led by KWTRP and supported by African, UK and EU partners, the five-year effort aims to improve vaccine efficacy. KWTRP is committed to producing rigorous clinical evidence to ensure new tools meet the needs of African communities most affected by malaria, supporting regional vaccine research, delivery, and long-term impact.
An international study has identified a blood-based indicator of intestinal damage and inflammation that strongly predicts mortality in sick children. The new biomarker could help to identify those children at greatest risk of dying after hospitalisation in parts of the world with limited resources.
AI applications in dengue monitoring and prediction are showing encouraging early signals, with new models achieving around 80% accuracy in forecasting severe progression up to two hours in advance. The Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) presented these findings at the Dengue Summit 2025, organised by Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute.
Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are facing an urgent and complex challenge: how to transition to greater self-sustainability in health financing amid declining donor support. While this shift is inevitable, the policy responses it elicits carry significant implications for health system equity and access.
Researchers at the University of Oxford and their collaborators have demonstrated that simple, rapid, and inexpensive tests can detect deadly contaminants in medicinal syrups - contaminants that have tragically led to the deaths of hundreds of children worldwide.
The study titled\u202f\u201cEvaluating Antimicrobial Stewardship strategies and capacity building through Participatory Action Research and a Network approach in Vietnam\u201d\u202f(60HN \u2013 ASPARNet) continues to implement activities to promote Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) programmes across hospitals participating in the network.
A new publication authored by IDDO\u2019s Visceral Leishmaniasis (VL) Scientific Advisory Committee sets out a research agenda for VL, and describes how IDDO established and developed a data platform that enables data reuse for crucial historical data.
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