Dr Jay Berkley

Jay Berkley is a Professor of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford and has worked for 25 years at the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, in Kenya. His research work is driven by direct experiences in the care of sick and malnourished children. He leads a multidisciplinary research group focussing on infants and children at high risk of mortality from infectious diseases including malnourished children and neonates. He is the founder and co-Director of the Childhood Acute Illness and Nutrition (CHAIN) Network in Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Burkina Faso), South Asia (Pakistan, Bangladesh), UK, USA, Canada, and The Netherlands. CHAIN aims to better understand infectious, metabolic, health systems and social pathways to childhood mortality through epidemiological cohorts; and systems biology including the microbiome, proteomics, metabolomics and immunity; a social science platform examining family journeys through acute illness. He leads randomised clinical trials ranging from early phase safety and pharmacokinetics to multicentre phase III antimicrobial and nutritional trials. He chairs several Data Safety Monitoring Committees and is currently involved with WHO as a GDG member for childhood malnutrition and paediatric antibiotics.