About
Dr Nathan Brendish is a NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases & General Internal Medicine. His research interests focus on the clinical impact of point-of-care tests for infectious diseases.
Dr Brendish’s expertise in rapid diagnostic tests in severe respiratory virus infection stems from his PhD under Professor Tristan Clark at the University of Southampton. Dr Brendish continues to be part of Prof Clark’s research group.
Dr Brendish was the lead study fellow on the ResPOC trial. The ResPOC trial was a large, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial of routine molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses in adults presenting to hospital with acute respiratory illness versus standard care. This showed that multiplex molecular testing at the point-of-care for respiratory viruses improved diagnosis of influenza, improved appropriate neuraminidase inhibitor prescribing, improved appropriate use of isolation facilities, and decreased length of hospital stay. This seminal study was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2017.
Dr Brendish was also the lead fellow for the CoV-19POC trial of molecular point-of-care testing for SARS-CoV-2, which also showed multiple clinical benefits of ultra-rapid PCR testing, and was published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine in 2020.
Dr Brendish started his research career as a study physician in the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility, focussing on malaria vaccine trials.
Landmark Publications:
- Brendish NJ, Malachira AK, Armstrong L, ... Clark TW. Routine molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses in adults presenting to hospital with acute respiratory illness (ResPOC): a pragmatic, open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2017; 5:401-411.
- Brendish NJ, Poole S, Naidu VV, ... Clark TW. Clinical impact of molecular point-of-care testing for suspected COVID-19 in hospital (COV-19POC): a prospective, interventional, non-randomised, controlled study. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2020; 8:1192-1200.
- Clark TW, Beard KR, Brendish NJ, et al. Clinical impact of a routine, molecular, point-of-care, test-and-treat strategy for influenza in adults admitted to hospital (FluPOC): a multicentre, open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. 2021; 9:419-429.
- Brendish NJ, Beard KR, Malachira AK, ... Clark TW. Clinical impact of syndromic molecular point-of-care testing for gastrointestinal pathogens in adults hospitalised with suspected gastroenteritis (GastroPOC): a pragmatic, open-label, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2023; 23:945-955.
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Research
Current research
Dr Nathan Brendish is a NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases & General Internal Medicine. His research interests focus on molecular point-of-care testing for infections in hospitalised patients. He has been integral to multiple high-quality trials assessing the clinical impact of ultra-rapid testing for respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, and gastrointestinal pathogens.
Dr Brendish has previously worked as a study physician in the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility on multiple malaria vaccine trials. These studies were often Phase I or Phase II trials, including first-in-human studies and human challenge studies.
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Teaching
- Associate lead for infection teaching for the University of Southampton Medical School - including delivering several lectures and seminars to medicial students.
- Infection Clinical Lecture Series session lead.
- Teaches on the MSc Public Health and MSc Genomic Medicine (Communicable Disease Control module).
- Teaches on the 'Master class in infectious diseases' SSC.
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Biography
Dr Brendish was trained at University College London Medical School, and graduated with distinction (i.e. in the top 10%), along with an intercalated degree in immunology. He then moved to the West Midlands for the Foundation Programme, before moving to Wessex for Core Medical Training. He started his infectious diseases research career in the NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility working on early phase malaria vaccine trials, before doing his PhD in molecular point-of-care testing for respiratory viruses.
Dr Brendish was seconded to Public Health England as a clinical fellow in early 2020 as part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was subsequently seconded part-time to the Department of Health and Social Care as a clinical advisor on point-of-care testing, for four months towards the end of 2020.
Qualifications
- BSc, Immunology & Cell Pathology, University College London, 2007
- MBBS, Distinction (top 10%), University College London, 2010
- MRCP, Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK, 2013
- DMCC, Diploma in the Medical Care of Catastrophes, 2014
- PhD, University of Southampton, 2019
Prizes
- European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID): Young Investigator Award (2024)
- Royal College of Physicians: Turner-Warwick Lecture Award for Wessex (2024)
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