The Quarter is home to the University of Birmingham’s Clinical Immunology Services (CIS), which provides a comprehensive range of accredited lab services to the NHS and industry – specialising in the diagnosis of autoimmune and neuroimmunological disease, blood cancers, primary and secondary immunodeficiency, infections and allergy.
CIS – led by Professor Alex Richter – is a pioneer of simple, low-cost tests facilitating global health equity, such as for measles and Mpox immunity, helping to guide vaccine strategy. They also created the blood spot test that has enabled the screening of thousands of children for Type 1 Diabetes through the ELSA study.
The team also made a significant contribution to the national pandemic response efforts by providing large‑scale testing capacity and developing a new test to detect COVID-19 antibodies in people with mild symptoms and were the first to confirm asymptomatic disease transmission in collaboration with the Birmingham-based The Binding Site.
