AUTH is the largest academic and research centre in Greece. The medical school has 2 NICUs in 2 tertiary-care hospitals in Thessaloniki with large number of VLBW neonates admitted per year. The Neonatology Departments have active programmes in sepsis and participate in various multi-centre clinical studies including FP7 NeoMero. Faculty members have deep interest in mechanisms of sepsis (immunology, host defences, transmission, etc). The Infect Dis Unit (headed by Pr. Roilides) has many collaborations with the NICUs. As part of the ID Unit a research lab supports these collaborations and among other projects it studies biofilms of bacteria and Candida with grants by various organizations.