Researcher profile

David Eyre

I am a Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Oxford's Big Data Institute and Honorary Consultant in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at Oxford University Hospitals. My research aims to understand who gets different infections and why, and how best to prevent, treat and monitor these infections. I also work on developing artificial intelligence tools to help diagnose and treat hospital patients, and to help hospitals run better. I use a range of approaches spanning epidemiology, statistics, causal inference, and machine learning. I work with detailed deidentified healthcare record data at both regional and national scales. I also have extensive programming and database expertise. I have published over 230 research papers (August 2026: h-index=85, citations= 39481) and raised over £35m in grant funding; £12m as PI/theme lead. My other research interests include the use of whole-genome sequencing as a tool for understanding the epidemiology and transmission of bacteria, viruses and fungi, and mathematical modelling of infectious disease transmission. I am also interested in using sequencing technologies as a novel tool for culture-independent microbiology diagnostics. These technologies offer the prospect of same-day diagnosis of infection, rather than having to wait several days for bacteria to grow in the lab as is common now. I work as part of the Modernising Medical Microbiology consortium on several of these projects, co-leading the Oxford NIHR Biomedical Research Centre infection theme and the surveillance and pandemic preparedness themes within the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit on antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections.