Irish meningitis and sepsis reference laboratory (IMSRL)

The IMSRL provides a national diagnostic service for key bacteria that cause meningitis and sepsis, and carries out detailed characterisation of these bacteria. The latter function supports public health departments in managing individual cases and outbreaks of meningitis and sepsis. It also supports national decisions relating to vaccine policy. IMSRL works closely with the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) in providing national surveillance data for meningitis and sepsis.

IMSRL also carries out research relating to these bacteria, which includes collaboration with national and international academic centres (including Oxford University), and provides expert advice to clinicians regarding the investigation and treatment of cases of meningitis and sepsis.

The IMSRL team comprises medical microbiologists, scientists, and administrative assistants/data managers (including two Consultant Microbiologists,  one Chief Scientist, one Specialist Registrar, one Data manager, one Admin Assistant, two basic grade scientists, two post doc scientists, one Senior Molecular Biologist, two  Senior Medical Scientists and one Research Associate).