Sepsis Science

The Genomic Advances in Sepsis (GAinS) study was initiated in 2005 by the UK Critical Care Genomics group (established in 2003) to characterise genetic influences on susceptibility to, and outcomes from sepsis. Sepsis is a life-threatening complication of infection caused by a dysregulated host immune response leading to organ failure. This condition affects an estimated 30 million people worldwide each year, and is recognised as a global health priority by the World Health Organisation.

Since it began in 2005, more than 2400 patients with sepsis have been enrolled in the GAinS study. GAinS is now closed to recruitment and we have embarked on an exciting new phase of the GAinS study (GAinS2/Sepsis immunomics). We also collaborate with other initiatives including Genomics England, with a small number of GAinS patients recruited in parallel to the 100,000 genomes project. If you are a patient, you can find out more about sepsis and the GAinS studies here. Our ongoing work (GAinS2) uses an integrated, multi-omics and epigenetic approach to explore the heterogeneous host response in sepsis and, using a repurposed GAinS2 protocol, to COVID. You can read more about these investigations on the For Researchers page. Details of patient recruitment and our published research can be found on our News and Publications pages.

Our researchers are primarily based at the University of Oxford, Barts and the London Queen Mary School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Sanger Institute and Imperial College London, but we have a number of active collaborations with scientists from all around the world. We would like to encourage investigators in the field of critical care who are interested in working with us to contact the GAinS management committee.