University of Newcastle is a member of the prestigious Russell Group, Group, comprising 24 leading research institutions in the UK. As part of the University's commitment to excellence with impact, it has identified 3 institutional research challenge themes that address key societal issues, namely: ageing and health; sustainability and social renewal.

Newcastle University has close links with the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Hospitals and many clinical academic staff have dual appointments. The Children’s directorate in the Great North Children’s Hospital (GNCH) including a.o. the Paediatric Emergency Department (ED), the Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Service, and Paediatric Oncology Service all from which patients will be recruited to participate in the study. The Paediatric Oncology department provides a regional service to northern England with about 110 new patients per annum and currently has over 1000 children on treatment or in long- term follow up.

Lead PI - Dr. Marieke Emonts

Main tasks under the Project:

• UNEW will lead on the recruitment and assigning of categories for Immunocompromised patients
• UNEW will contribute to the health care evaluation and dissemination with the option to use the Living Lab facility. Furthermore, it recently opened a new Decision theatre thus allowing multi-stakeholder integrated data discussions and simulations. These will be used for both modelling and dissemination purposes during the annual project meetings
• The D&TT Research Group at Newcastle University will contribute to the evaluation of the optimal platforms for the translation of our diagnostic signatures into a clinically applicable test