Chair
Dr. Francesco Blasi
Francesco Blasi, MD, FERS, is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Head of the Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation at the University of Milan, Italy, as well as Head of Cardiothoracic Unit IRCCS Fondazione Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Milan.
His research interests include the effects of atypical bacterial infection on cellular immunity in chronic bronchitis, and the role of atypical bacteria and viral infection in asthma onset.
He is also interested in the role of antibiotics in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations and asthma. He is actively working on pneumonia and tuberculosis research trials.
Professor Blasi has published more than 230 papers in international journals.
Co-Chair
Dr. Stefano Aliberti
Stefano Aliberti is Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Milan and consultant at the Policlinico University Hospital, Milan, Italy. He received his medical degree from the University of Milan and completed his clinical research training at the University of Louisville, KY, USA, working as member of the Community-Acquired Pneumonia Organization Database. Most of his research over the past ten years has been focused on both acute and chronic respiratory infections. He is currently Head of the Respiratory Infections Assembly of the European Respiratory Society, co-funding member of both the European Registry (EMBARC) and the Italian Registry (IRIDE) of adult patients with bronchiectasis. He leads a multidisciplinary team of physicians and respiratory physiotherapists taking care bronchiectasis patients and those with NTM at the Policlinico Hospital.
Members
Timothy Aksamit
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biomedical Science
B.S., University of Illinois
M.D., Northwestern University School of Medicine
Dr. Aksamit is board certified in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine as well as internal medicine. He currently is an associate professor of medicine and consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
After completion of residency training in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases, and critical care medicine including a chief residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Dr. Aksamit was in private practice for six years in Madison, Wisconsin prior to joining the Mayo Clinic staff in 1998.
His professional interests are in pulmonary diseases and critical care medicine. He has previously served as the director of the medical intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota for six years.. He has co-authored an international position statement by the American Thoracic Society and Infectious Disease Society of America on the diagnosis and treatment of nontuberculous mycobacterial disease, and is a co-founding member of an international nontuberculous consortium, NTM-NET. Dr. Aksamit has assisted in the development and implementation of a collaborative tuberculosis clinic project between Mayo Clinic and the Olmsted County Public Health Department, and has served as the medical director since its inception in 2001. Other positions held include chair of the State of Minnesota Tuberculous Advisory Committee as well as director of the Mayo Mycobacterial and Bronchiectasis Clinic. Dr. Aksamit has participated in the CDC-sponsored Heartland National TB Center in San Antonio, Texas, as a faculty member, advisory committee member, and medical consultant. Collaborative efforts by Dr. Aksamit have resulted in Mayo Clinic’s position as one of the founding members of the national Bronchiectasis Research Registry, and he serves as the chair of the Registry’s advisory committee.
James D. Chalmers
Dr James Chalmers is Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant at the University of Dundee in the UK. He runs a regional specialist clinic caring for more than 600 patients with bronchiectasis. He runs a research group primarily focussed on developing novel diagnostics and treatments for bronchiectasis funded by the Scottish Government, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, European Union, Charities and Industry.
He is chair of the European Bronchiectasis Registry and has chaired the upcoming ERS bronchiectasis guidelines along with Dr Eva Polverino. He is associate editor of the European Respiratory Journal, is on the International advisory board of the Lancet Respiratory Medicine, is secretary of the European Board for Accreditation in Pneumology, is chair of the British Thoracic Society Respiratory Infections Speciality advisory group and holds a number of other major society/committee appointments.
Lucy Morgan
Lucy Morgan is a Respiratory Physician working in clinical academic practice in Sydney. She has 20 year’s experience in the care of patients with chronic respiratory infections and is Chair of the Australasian Bronchiectasis Consortium, a proud antipodean member of the EMBARC program and co-convenor of the WBCII. Lucy is the Director of the Australian Centre for Ciliary Structure and Function and the multidisciplinary PCD Management service at Concord Hospital. She is a passionate advocate for patients with chronic lung disease and holds executive positions on the TSANZ and Lung Foundation Australia.
Eva Polverino
Doctor of Medicine in Cardiopulmonary Pathophysiology from the University of Pisa (Italy). Specialist in respiratory medicine she is involved in the field of respiratory infections and particularly in Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP), noncystic fibrosis bronchiectasis (NCFB) and humoral immuno-deficiencies. She investigates epidemiology, risk factors, outcome, treatment and prevention of the most relevant respiratory infections. In the field of bronchiectasis she has been investigating the microbiological causes of exacerbations (pneumonia and simple exacerbations) and the application of respiratory physiotherapy to improve airways clearance and fatigue in this chronic and debilitating disease.
Despite the enormous advances in antibiotic therapy CAP is still a very prevalent disease worldwide with a considerable morbidity and mortality. Main efforts of the projects she carries on in this line of research are directed at monitoring epidemiological and clinical changes of the disease and evaluating strategies of better disease control and prevention with special attention to some risk classes of patients such as elderly and long term care facility residents (Healthcare associated pneumonia, HCAP).
In the field of bronchiectasis main objectives are focused on investigation of the prevalence and outcomes of this under estimated but very frequent disease and its impact on the society. In particular the real prevalence and clinical endpoints of NCFB (i.e. quality of life, chronic expectoration) in the general population are still unclear although there are data suggesting that the disease could be as prevalent as COPD.
Humoral immuno-deficiencies are part of a group of rare immunological disorders causing recurrent respiratory infections whose genetics is still barely known. In this line new therapeutic approaches are tested and several collaboration projects with other institutions are carried out to broaden our knowledge about immunological and genetic disorders possibly involved in the disease.
In summary, the results of her research are aimed at investigating pathogenetic mechanisms of respiratory infections, improving their clinical outcomes and patients’ quality of life.
Tobias Welte
Professor Tobias Welte is the Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625 Hannover.
1978 -1985: Study of human medicine, Hannover Medical School
1985 – 88/90: Department of Internal Medicine, County Hospital Lehrte
1989: Residentialship, Massuchusetts General Hospital Boston, USA
1990-1994: Fellow, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School
1992: Specialist for Internal Medicine
1994: Specialist for Respiratory Medicine
1994: MD
1995: Specialist Intensive Care Medicine
2000: Habilitation for “Internal Medicine”
2002: Specialist for Infectious Disease Academic Appointments:
1994 – 2004 : Head of the Division of Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care, University of Magdeburg
2003: Appointment C3 Professorship for Respiratory Medicine University of Magdeburg, not accepted
since 2004: W3-Professorship, Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School
2015: Appointment Professorship for Pneumology, University of Vienna, not accepted Other (selected) Professional Activities:
1994 – today: Project leader in more than thirty research projects funded by DFG, BMBF and EU
Since 2001: Co-ordinating board of BMBF-competence networks PROGRESS, ASCONET and CAPNETZ as well as Chairman of CAPNETZ Foundation
2007-2011: Speaker of the BMBF funded Clinical Study Center Hannover (KS-MHH)
since 2011: Member of the board of directors of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) and director of the Hannover DZL site BREATH (Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover)
since 2011: Member of the Internal Advisory Board of the German Center of Infectious Disease Research (DZIF)
2008-2010: President of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care Medicine
2009-2015: Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Monograph
since 2008: Member, since 2012 Spokesman of DFG-Fachkollegium “Inflammation”
2009-2013: President of the German Sepsis Society
2012-2014 President of German Society of Pneumology
Additional Information: 2014 Appointment as Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS)