I qualified in Medicine in 1986 at Newcastle University and undertook Higher Specialist Training in Public Health Medicine in Oxford and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I held Consultant positions in Health Protection in Birmingham, Glasgow and London before joining the University of Manchester in 2004 as Professor of Health Sciences and Epidemiology. I moved to the University of Liverpool in 2011 as Professor of Infection Epidemiology and Zoonoses where I was also the first Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infections. I joined Newcastle University in August 2019 as the Elizabeth Creak Professor of Translational Agritechnology. 

I  am currently a member of the Food Standards Agency's Science Council. I chaired the Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food for ten years between April 2007 and March 2017 leading the production of influential, independent expert advice to the FSA and others on a range of topics including Campylobacter, Salmonella and viruses in food.

My research interests in food safety include developing better estimates of foodborne disease burden, modernising surveillance methods, developing a better understanding of food-related norovirus and unravelling the epidemiology of Campylobacter infection. My total research income to date exceeds £45M (£25M as PI) and I have published >150 original research papers. Prior to entering academia I spent nearly 20 years working at the sharp end, investigating and managing outbreaks of foodborne disease and so my research links directly to practical applications along the food chain from farm to fork.

I have led several multi-million pound interdisciplinary grants including:-

• the Second Study of Infectious Intestinal Disease in the Community (also known as the IID2 Study funded by the Food Standards Agency), https://www.food.gov.uk/research/research-projects/the-second-study-of-infectious-intestinal-disease-in-the-community-iid2-study
• Sources, seasonality, tranmission and control: Campylobacter and human behaviour in a changing environment (also known as ENIGMA funded by the Environmental and Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases Initiative), http://www.enigmaproject.org.uk/
• Fully-integrated, real-time detection, diagnosis and control of community diarrhoeal disease clusters and outbreaks (also known as INTEGRATE (funded by the Wellcome Trust and Department of Health as part of the Health Innovation Challenge Fund), http://www.integrateproject.org.uk/
• Norovirus Attribution Study (also known as NoVAS funded by the Food Standards Agency) http://www.novas.org.uk/

• The NIHR Health Protection Unit in Gastrointestinal Infections. 

  
  

• Harris JP, Iturriza-Gomara M, Allen DJ, Kelly S, O'Brien SJ. Norovirus strain types found within the second infectious intestinal diseases (IID2) study an analysis of norovirus circulating in the community. BMC Infectious Diseases 2019, 19, 87.
• Rushton SP, Sanderson RA, Diggle PJ, Shirley MDF, Blain AP, Lake I, Maas JA, Reid WDK, Hardstaff J, Williams N, Jones NR, Rigby D, Stachan NJC, Forbes KJ, Hunter PR, Humphrey TJ, O'Brien SJ. Climate, human behaviour or environment: individual-based modelling of Campylobacter seasonality and strategies to reduce disease burden. Journal of Translational Medicine 2019, 17, 34.
• O'Brien SJ, Sanderson RA, Rushton SP. Control of norovirus infection. Current Opinion in Gastroenterology 2019, 35(1), 14-19.
• McKerr C, Chalmers RM, Vivancos R, O'Brien SJ, Mugarza J, Christley RM. Cross-sectional investigation of household transmission of Cryptosporidium in England and Wales: the epiCrypt study protocol. BMJ Open 2019, 9, e026116.
• Harris JP, Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien SJ. Estimating Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) in Community Cases of Norovirus in England. Viruses 2019, 11(2), 184.
• Inns T, Clough HE, Harris JP, Vivancos R, Adams N, O'Brien SJ. Estimating the burden of care home gastroenteritis outbreaks in England, 2014-2016. BMC Infectious Diseases 2019, 19, 12.
• Violato M, Taylor-Robinson DC, Hungerford DJ, Gray A, O'Brien S, Iturriza-Gomara M. Family income and exposure to norovirus in childhood: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. SSM - Population Health 2019, 8, 100445.
• Adams NL, Byrne L, Rose TC, Adak GK, Jenkins C, Charlett A, Violato M, O'Brien SJ, Whitehead MM, Barr B, Taylor-Robinson DC, Hawker JI. Influence of socio-economic status on Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) infection incidence, risk factors and clinical features. Epidemiology and Infection 2019, 147, e215.
• Adams NL, Rose TC, Elliot AJ, Smith G, Morbey R, Loveridge P, Lewis J, Studdard G, Violato M, O'Brien SJ, Whitehead M, Taylor-Robinson DC, Hawker JI, Barr B. Social patterning of telephone health-advice for diarrhoea and vomiting: analysis of 24 million telehealth calls in England. Journal of Infection 2019, 78(2), 95-100.
• Donaldson AL, Clough HE, O'Brien SJ, Harris JP. Symptom profiling for infectious intestinal disease (IID): a secondary data analysis of the IID2 study. Epidemiology and Infection 2019, 147, e229.
• Rushton SP, Sanderson RA, Reid WDK, Shirley MDF, Harris JP, Hunter PR, O'Brien SJ. Transmission routes of rare seasonal diseases: the case of norovirus infections. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2019, 374(1776), 20180267.
• Elson R, Grace K, Vivancos R, Jenkins C, Adak GK, O'Brien SJ, Lake IR. A spatial and temporal analysis of risk factors associated with sporadic Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157 infection in England between 2009 and 2015. Epidemiology and Infection 2018, 146(15), 1928-1939.
• Sanderson RA, Maas JA, Blain AP, Gorton R, Ward J, O'Brien SJ, Hunter PR, Rushton SP. Spatio-temporal models to determine association between Campylobacter cases and environment. International Journal of Epidemiology 2018, 47(1), 202-216.
• Hardstaff JL, Clough HE, Harris JP, Lowther JA, Lees DN, O'Brien SJ. The use of capture-recapture methods to provide better estimates of the burden of norovirus outbreaks from seafood in England, 2004-2011. Epidemiology and Infection 2018, 147, 1-7.
• Carron M, Chang YM, Momanyi K, Akoko J, Kiiru J, Bettridge J, Chaloner G, Rushton J, O'Brien S, Williams N, Fèvre EM, Häsler B. Campylobacter, a zoonotic pathogen of global importance: Prevalence and risk factors in the fast-evolving chicken meat system of Nairobi, Kenya. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2018, 12(8), e0006658.
• Lowther JA, Gustar NE, Powell AL, O'Brien S, Lees DN. A One-Year Survey of Norovirus in UK Oysters Collected at the Point of Sale. Food and Environmental Virology 2018, 10(3), 278–287.
• McKerr C, O'Brien SJ, Chalmers RM, Vivancos R, Christley RM. Exposures associated with infection with Cryptosporidium in industrialised countries: a systematic review protocol. Systematic Reviews 2018, 7, 70.
• Inns T, Keenan A, Huyton R, Harris J, Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien SJ, Vivancos R. How timely closure can reduce outbreak duration: gastroenteritis in care homes in North West England, 2012-2016. BMC Public Health 2018, 18, 488.
• de Lusignan S, Konstantara E, Joy M, Sherlock J, Hoang U, Coyle R, Ferreira F, Jones S, O'Brien SJ. Incidence of household transmission of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in a primary care sentinel network (1992-2017): cross-sectional and retrospective cohort study protocol. BMJ Open 2018, 8, e022524.
• Adams NL, Rose TC, Hawker J, Violato M, O'Brien SJ, Barr B, Howard VJK, Whitehead M, Harris R, Taylor-Robinson DC. Relationship between socioeconomic status and gastrointestinal infections in developed countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One 2018, 13, e0191633.
• Millman C, Christley R, Rigby D, Dennis D, O'Brien SJ, Williams N. “Catch 22”: Biosecurity awareness, interpretation and practice amongst poultry catchers. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 2017, 141, 22–32.
• Jones AK, Cross P, Burton M, Millman C, O'Brien SJ, Rigby D. Estimating the prevalence of food risk increasing behaviours in UK kitchens. PLoS One 2017, 12, e0175816.
• Harris JP, Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien SJ. Re-assessing the total burden of norovirus circulating in the United Kingdom population. Vaccine 2017, 35(6), 853-855.
• Hill AA, Crotta M, Wall B, Good L, O'Brien SJ, Guitian J. Towards an integrated food safety surveillance system: a simulation study to explore the potential of combining genomic and epidemiological metadata. Royal Society Open Science 2017, 4, 160721.
• Jones NR, Millman C, van der Es M, Hukelova M, Forbes KJ, Glover C, Haldenby S, Hunter PR, Jackson K, O'Brien SJ, Rigby D, Strachan NJC, Williams N, Lake IR, O'Brien S, Christley R, Hertz-Fowler C, Wigley P, Winstanley C, Diggle P, Lake I, Hiscock K, Hunter P, Forbes K, Strachan N, Griffith R, Cross P, Rushton S, Humphrey T, Bennett M, Howard D, Wren B. Novel sampling method for assessing human-pathogen interactions in the natural environment using boot socks and citizen scientists, with application to Campylobacter seasonality. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2017, 83(14), e00162-17.
• Hardstaff JL, Clough HE, Lutje V, McIntyre KM, Harris JP, Garner P, O'Brien SJ. Foodborne and Food-Handler Norovirus Outbreaks: A Systematic Review. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease 2018, 15(10), 589-597.
• Adams NL, Rose TC, Hawker J, Violato M, O'Brien SJ, Whitehead M, Barr B, Taylor-Robinson DC. Socioeconomic status and infectious intestinal disease in the community: A longitudinal study (IID2 study). European Journal of Public Health 2018, 28(1), 134-138.
• Inns T, Harris J, Vivancos R, Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien S. Community-based surveillance of norovirus disease: A systematic review. BMC Infectious Diseases 2017, 17(1), 657.
• Elliot AJ, Morbey R, Edeghere O, Lake IR, Colon-Gonzalez FJ, Vivancos R, Rubin GJ, O'Brien SJ, Smith GE. Developing a Multidisciplinary Syndromic Surveillance Academic Research Program in the United Kingdom: Benefits for Public Health Surveillance. Public Health Reports 2017, 132(1), 111S-115S.
• Inns T, Pulawska-Czub A, Harris JP, Vivancos R, Read JM, Beeching NJ, Allen DJ, Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien SJ. Prospective cohort study to investigate the burden and transmission of acute gastroenteritis in care homes: A study protocol. BMJ Open 2017, 7(11), e018867.
• Rose TC, Adams NL, Barr B, Hawker J, O'Brien SJ, Violato M, Whitehead M, Taylor-Robinson DC. Socioeconomic status is associated with symptom severity and sickness absence in people with infectious intestinal disease in the UK. BMC Infectious Diseases 2017, 17(1), 447.
• O'Brien SJ. The consequences of campylobacter infection. Current Opinion in Gastroenterology 2017, 33(1), 14-20.
• O'Brien SJ, Donaldson AL, Iturriza-Gomara M, Tam CC. Age-Specific Incidence Rates for Norovirus in the Community and Presenting to Primary Healthcare Facilities in the United Kingdom. Journal of Infectious Diseases 2016, 213(suppl 1), S15-S18.
• Allen DJ, Trainor E, Callaghan A, O'Brien SJ, Cunliffe NA, Iturriza-Gomara M. Early detection of epidemic GII-4 norovirus strains in UK and Malawi: Role of surveillance of sporadic acute gastroenteritis in anticipating global epidemics. PLoS ONE 2016, 11(4), e0146972.
• Tam CC, O'Brien SJ. Economic cost of campylobacter, norovirus and rotavirus disease in the United Kingdom. PLoS ONE 2016, 11(2), e0138526.
• Viviani L, Van Der Es M, Irvine L, Tam CC, Rodrigues LC, Jackson KA, O'Brien SJ, Hunter PR. Estimating the incidence of acute infectious intestinal disease in the community in the UK: A retrospective telephone survey. PLoS ONE 2016, 11(1), e0146171.
• Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien SJ. Foodborne viral infections. Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases 2016, 29(5), 495-501.
• O'Brien SJ, Larose TL, Adak GK, Evans MR, Tam CC. Modelling study to estimate the health burden of foodborne diseases: Cases, general practice consultations and hospitalisations in the UK, 2009. BMJ Open 2016, 6(9), BMJ Open 2016;6:e011119.
• Bawa Z, Elliot AJ, Morbey RA, Ladhani S, Cunliffe NA, O'Brien SJ, Regan M, Smith GE, Weinstein RA. Assessing the likely impact of a rotavirus vaccination program in England: The contribution of syndromic surveillance. Clinical Infectious Diseases 2015, 61(1), 77-85.
• Minetti C, Lamden K, Durband C, Cheesbrough J, Platt K, Charlett A, O'Brien SJ, Fox A, Wastling JM. Case-control study of risk factors for sporadic giardiasis and parasite assemblages in North West England. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 2015, 53(10), 3133-3140.
• Hill AA, Horigan V, Clarke KA, Dewé TCM, Stärk KDC, O'Brien S, Buncic S. A qualitative risk assessment for visual-only post-mortem meat inspection of cattle, sheep, goats and farmed/wild deer. Food Control 2014, 38(1), 96-103.
• Lesko MM, O'Brien SJ, Childs C, Bouamra O, Rainey T, Lecky F. Comparison of several prognostic tools in traumatic brain injury including S100B. Brain Injury 2014, 28(7), 987-994.
• McNulty CAM, Lasseter G, Verlander NQ, Yoxall H, Moore P, O'Brien SJ, Evans M. Management of suspected infectious diarrhoea by English GPs: Are they right?. British Journal of General Practice 2014, 64(618), e24-e30.
• McCarthy ND, Gillespie IA, Mook P, Adak GK, O'Brien SJ. McCarthy et al. Respond to "Evaluating Case-Chaos for Outbreaks Investigations". American Journal of Epidemiology 2014, 180(4), 412-413.
• Gillespie IA, Mook P, Adak GK, O'Brien SJ, McCarthy ND. The Authors Reply. American Journal of Epidemiology 2014, 179(2), 262-263.
• Harris JP, Adak GK, O'Brien SJ. To close or not to close? Analysis of 4 year's data from national surveillance of norovirus outbreaks in hospitals in England. BMJ Open 2014, 4(1), e003919.
• Derrick J, Hollinghurst P, O'Brien S, Elviss N, Allen DJ, Iturriza-Gomara M. Measuring transfer of human norovirus during sandwich production: Simulating the role of food, food handlers and the environment. International Journal of Food Microbiology 2021, 348, 109151.
• Elson R, Davies TM, Jenkins C, Vivancos R, O'Brien SJ, Lake IR. Application of kernel smoothing to estimate the spatio-temporal variation in risk of STEC O157 in England. Spatial and Spatio-temporal Epidemiology 2020, 32, 100305.
• Lees EA, Carrol ED, Ellaby NAF, Roberts P, Corless CE, Lenzi L, Darby A, O'Brien SJ, Cunliffe NA, Turner MA, Miyajima F, Pirmohamed M. Characterization of Circulating Clostridium difficile Strains, Host Response and Intestinal Microbiome in Hospitalized Children With Diarrhea. The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal 2020, 39(3), 221-228.
• Hughes HE, Edeghere O, O'Brien SJ, Vivancos R, Elliot AJ. Emergency department syndromic surveillance systems: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 2020, 20, 1891.
• Haldenby S, Bronowski C, Nelson C, Kenny J, Martinez-Rodriguez C, Chaudhuri R, Williams NJ, Forbes K, Strachan NJ, Pulman J, Winstanley IN, Corless CE, Humphrey TJ, Bolton FJ, O'Brien SJ, Hall N, Hertz-Fowler C, Winstanley C. Increasing prevalence of a fluoroquinolone resistance mutation amongst Campylobacter jejuni isolates from four human infectious intestinal disease studies in the United Kingdom. PLoS ONE 2020, 15(1), e0227535.
• Rose TC, Adams NL, Whitehead MM, Wickham S, O'Brien SJ, Hawker J, Taylor-Robinson DC, Violato M, Barr B. Neighbourhood unemployment and other socio-demographic predictors of emergency hospitalisation for infectious intestinal disease in England: A longitudinal ecological study. Journal of Infection 2020, 81(5), 736-742.
• Kintz E, Williams NJ, Jones N, van der Es M, Lake IR, O'Brien SJ, Hunter PR. Regional differences in presence of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli virulence-associated genes in the environment in the North West and East Anglian regions of England. Letters in Applied Microbiology 2020, 71(2), 179-186.
• Donaldson AL, Harris JP, Vivancos R, O'Brien SJ. Risk factors associated with outbreaks of seasonal infectious disease in school settings, England, UK. Epidemiology & Infection 2020, 148, e287.
• Hill A, Muñoz V, Downes J, Schuppers M, Buncic S, O'Brien S, Stärk KDC. To Sample or Not to Sample? An Analysis of the Need for Salmonella Sampling of Smaller Poultry Processors. Risk Analysis 2020, 40(10), 2093-2111.
• Hughes HE, Elliot AJ, Hughes TC, Hungerford D, Morbey RA, Smith GE, Vivancos R, O'Brien SJ. Using emergency department syndromic surveillance to investigate the impact of a national vaccination program: A retrospective observational study. PLoS ONE 2020, 15(10), e0240021.
• McIntyre KM, Bolton FJ, Christley RM, Cleary P, Deja E, Durie AE, Diggle PJ, Hughes DA, de Lusignan S, Orton L, Radford AD, Elliot AJ, Smith GE, Snape DA, Stanistreet D, Vivancos R, Winstanley C, O'Brien SJ. A Fully Integrated Real-Time Detection, Diagnosis, and Control of Community Diarrheal Disease Clusters and Outbreaks (the INTEGRATE Project): Protocol for an Enhanced Surveillance System. JMIR Research Protocols 2019, 8(9), e13941.
• Hale AC, Sánchez-Vizcaíno F, Rowlingson B, Radford AD, Giorgi E, O'Brien SJ, Diggle PJ. A real-time spatio-temporal syndromic surveillance system with application to small companion animals. Scientific Reports 2019, 9, 17738.
• O'Brien S, Dobbs J, Humphrey T, Kyriakides A, Maiden MCJ, McCarthy N, McClure P, McDowell D, Nuttall D, Strachan N, Tucker D, Williams A. Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food Ad Hoc Group on Campylobacter: Third Report on Campylobacter. London: Food Standards Agency, 2019.
• Inns T, Pulawska-Czub A, Harris JP, Vivancos R, Beeching NJ, Iturriza-Gomara M, O'Brien SJ. Prospective cohort study to investigate the burden and transmission of acute gastroenteritis in care homes: epidemiological results. BMJ Open 2019, 9(12), e033239.
• Inns T, Wilson D, Manley P, Harris JP, O'Brien SJ, Vivancos R. What proportion of care home outbreaks are caused by norovirus? An analysis of viral causes of gastroenteritis outbreaks in care homes, North East England, 2016-2018. BMC Infectious Diseases 2019, 20(1), 2.
• O'Brien SJ, Brown D, Glazebrook R, Gray J, Hopwood J, Millership S, Morris J, Cook N, Lees D. Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food Ad Hoc Group on Foodborne Viral Infections: An update on viruses in the food chain. London: Food Standards Agency, 2015.