Who we are

HCV Research UK is a consortium of clinicians and scientists with the aim of promoting clinical and basic research into hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in individuals who reside in the UK. To achieve this aim, HCV Research UK has established the following:

  1. A cohort of approaching 12,000 individuals attending specialist HCV clinics in Scotland, England and Wales for care and management of their infection.

  2. A bespoke Clinical Database to hold all information on consented individuals in anonymised form.

  3. A Biorepository for clinical samples recruited into the HCV Research UK study; details of the samples were to be housed in a bespoke Biobank Database that would be linked to the Clinical Database.

  4. A Research Database for data generated from analysis of clinical samples held in the Biorepository.

  5. A Tissue and Database Access Committee (TDAC) for making decisions on approving or rejecting applications to access data and samples from HCV Research UK. TDAC is able to give ethical approval for any research studies.

  6. The University of Glasgow acts as the Managing Party and legal entity for HCV Research UK for completing any contracts or material transfer agreements.

Funding Support

HCV Research UK was established following the award of £1.92M by the Medical Research Foundation in January 2011 and a further supplementary award of £20K in May 2012. The consortium also recovers costs for releasing data and samples to remain operational and enable continued access to its resources by the research community.

Prof John McLauchlan
University of Glasgow
Co-chair of HCV Research UK

Management

The activities of HCV Research UK are coordinated by a Management Group. The following are the members of the Management Group:

Prof Will Irving
University of Nottingham
Co-chair of HCV Research UK

Prof John Dillon
University of Dundee
Chair of the Tissue and Data Access Committee (TDAC)

Prof Sharon Hutchinson
Glasgow Caledonian University

Prof Graham Foster
Queen Mary University of London

Dr Sarah McDonald
University of Glasgow
Manager of the HCV Research UK Biorepository

If you require any information about HCV Research UK, then please contact John McLauchlan (john.mclauchlan@glasgow.ac.uk), Will Irving (will.irving@nottingham.ac.uk) or Sarah McDonald (sarah.mcdonald@glasgow.ac.uk).

Who to Contact