Dr Derek Fairley is a COG-UK Principal Investigator for Queen’s University Belfast and a Research Scientist at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT) and an Honorary Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). He is a molecular microbiologist with a particular interest in translational research, diagnostic assay development, and applying modern molecular methods in clinical settings. He is responsible for developing new molecular diagnostic assays for detection, quantification and typing of bacterial and viral pathogens in the Regional Virus Laboratory. He led the regional Clostridium difficile and Pseudomonas aeruginosa molecular typing services for Northern Ireland, and is working to introduce pathogen genomics services for clinical and public health microbiology and virology teams. At COG-UK he is co-ordinating sequencing and analysis work by the Belfast sequencing hub, which is a collaboration between QUB and BHSCT, and provides sequencing coverage for all 5 NHS Trusts and 20 hospitals in Northern Ireland.
