In Lille, healthcare and research come together to fight against Covid-19

This task force brings together researchers and decision-makers from public research in Lille, as well as clinicians and biologists, who are on the front line of the fight against infection and patient care.
"Lille's research community is stepping up its efforts to combat Covid-19: therapeutic trials, clinical and fundamental research on the coronavirus, and more.
support for research units in terms of human resources, equipment and reagents for care and virological diagnosis activities and for the management of research samples. This is extremely positive. The coordination that has been put in place between the various players means that we can provide new responses to patients' needs every day," explains David Launay, Chairman of the CRBSP.

Technical, human and financial resources deployed

The task force's remit is to :

• (i) coordinating support for research units in terms of equipment and human resources to help develop biological diagnostics activities;
• (ii) facilitate the creation of cohorts and biological collections, by activating the clinical research resources of the university hospital campus;
• (iii) support the implementation of multicentre clinical trials or trials initiated in Lille;
• (iv) consolidate the financial resources needed for the actions ;
• (v) Better inform the general public, who are waiting for reliable, scientifically-backed data.

"Right from the start of the epidemic, the CHU's research professionals mobilised on a massive scale to provide support for research at the patient's bedside, setting up more than 12 active projects in record time, 6 of which were promoted by the CHU," say Karine Faure, head of the Lille CHU's infectiology department, and Frédéric Gottrand, vice-president of research on the Lille CHU's board of directors.

Joining forces

This coordination process is being carried out in conjunction with the Agence Régionale de Santé (ARS). By way of example, a survey aimed at all the research units has been drawn up by the taskforce to assess the human and material capacities that can be mobilised by the research units. The challenge here is to extend Covid-19's biological diagnostics capabilities under the leadership of Prof. Thierry Brousseau, head of the CHU's biology, pathology and genetics unit, who has been appointed to coordinate efforts to organise and extend these biological diagnostics activities.
"It was only natural that we should organise ourselves, across all institutions, to provide support to both fundamental and clinical teams who, by necessity, are developing precision health projects in a pandemic situation," says Régis Bordet, Director General of the ULNE I-SITE.