Dr Hugh Adler

Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Specialty Trainee in Infectious Diseases, Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust

Hugh studied medicine at University College Dublin and trained in internal medicine in inner-city Dublin. He then completed his diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene at LSTM, followed by a stint of paediatric HIV research in South Africa before returning to LSTM to take up a research fellow position with the respiratory infection group. His research at LSTM involved expanding the successful Experimental Human Pneumococcal Colonisation (EHPC) model into new populations. For his PhD, under the supervision of Daniela Ferreira, Jamie Rylance and Stephen Gordon, he demonstrated the safety of EHPC in volunteers aged up to 80 years. His research also refined our understanding of the immunology of pneumococcal colonisation in older people, and explored the changes in pneumococcal epidemiology in healthy adults in the city of Liverpool after changes in the childhood vaccination programme.   

After completing his PhD, Hugh has worked as a specialty trainee in infectious diseases and medical microbiology, based in hospitals across Merseyside. He continues to teach on the DTM&H and the MSc Tropical and Infectious Diseases. His ongoing research interests include pneumococcal colonisation and disease, antimicrobial resistance, and imported and emerging infections including monkeypox. He has built on his experience caring for patients with monkeypox in the Liverpool High Consequence Infectious Diseases (HCID) unit to describe the UK-wide clinical experience with this emerging virus, in collaboration with the national HCID network, including the first report of antiviral treatment for this disease.

Selected publications

  • Family cluster of three cases of monkeypox imported from Nigeria to the United Kingdom, May 2021. Hobson G, Adamson J, Adler H, Firth R, Gould S, Houlihan C, Johnson C, Porter D, Rampling T, Ratcliffe L, Russell K, Shankar AG, Wingfield T. Euro Surveill. 2021 Aug;26(32):2100745. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.32.2100745 

    Experimental Human Pneumococcal Colonization in Older Adults Is Feasible and Safe, Not Immunogenic. Adler H, German EL, Mitsi E, Nikolaou E, Pojar S, Hales C, Robinson R, Connor V, Hill H, Hyder-Wright AD, Lazarova L, Lowe C, Smith EL, Wheeler I, Zaidi SR, Jochems SP, Loukov D, Reiné J, Solórzano-Gonzalez C, de Gorguette d'Argoeuves P, Jones T, Goldblatt D, Chen T, Aston SJ, French N, Collins AM, Gordon SB, Ferreira DM, Rylance J. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2021 Mar 1;203(5):604-613. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202004-1483OC 

    Low rate of bacterial co-infection in patients with COVID-19. Adler H, Ball R, Fisher M, Mortimer K, Vardhan MS. Lancet Microbe. 2020 Jun;1(2):e62. doi: 10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30036-7. Epub 2020 Jun 8 

    Pneumococcal Colonization in Healthy Adult Research Participants in the Conjugate Vaccine Era, United Kingdom, 2010-2017. Adler H, Nikolaou E, Gould K, Hinds J, Collins AM, Connor V, Hales C, Hill H, Hyder-Wright AD, Zaidi SR, German EL, Gritzfeld JF, Mitsi E, Pojar S, Gordon SB, Roberts AP, Rylance J, Ferreira DM. J Infect Dis. 2019 May 24;219(12):1989-1993. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiz034. 

    Two Randomized Trials of the Effect of Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccine on Pneumococcal Colonization. Rylance J, de Steenhuijsen Piters WAA, Mina MJ, Bogaert D, French N, Ferreira DM; EHPC-LAIV Study Group. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2019 May 1;199(9):1160-1163. doi: 10.1164/rccm.201811-2081LE. 

    Inflammation induced by influenza virus impairs human innate immune control of pneumococcus. Jochems SP, Marcon F, Carniel BF, Holloway M, Mitsi E, Smith E, Gritzfeld JF, Solórzano C, Reiné J, Pojar S, Nikolaou E, German EL, Hyder-Wright A, Hill H, Hales C, de Steenhuijsen Piters WAA, Bogaert D, Adler H, Zaidi S, Connor V, Gordon SB, Rylance J, Nakaya HI, Ferreira DM. Nat Immunol. 2018 Dec;19(12):1299-1308. doi: 10.1038/s41590-018-0231-y. Epub 2018 Oct 29 

    Tuberculosis in HIV-infected South African children with complicated severe acute malnutrition. Adler H, Archary M, Mahabeer P, LaRussa P, Bobat RA. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2017 Apr 1;21(4):438-445. doi: 10.5588/ijtld.16.0753.