Professor Stephen DurhamProfessor Stephen Durham is Head of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine at Royal Brompton Hospital. He trained at Downing College Cambridge and Guy’s Hospital London qualifying in 1976. After posts in internal medicine in London and Cambridge he undertook research under Professor Barry Kay leading to his Doctorate in Medicine (MD) entitled ‘Immunologic Studies in Late Asthmatic Responses’. He completed his higher specialist training in respiratory medicine in Oxford before returning to the Brompton and his current post in 1988.
Professor Thirumala KrishnaProfessor Thirumala Krishna (TK) is Chair of Allergy, Clinical Immunology and Global Health at University of Birmingham (UoB), Honorary Consultant Allergist and Immunologist at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Foundation Trust and Head of Postgraduate School of Pathology at West Midlands NHS England – Education. He trained in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at University of Southampton under the guidance of Professor Sir Stephen Holgate and Late Professor Anthony Frew.
TK served as a member of Standards of Care Committee (SOCC) between 2009-19, as lead author of BSACI venom allergy guideline and co-authored allergen-specific immunotherapy for allergic rhinitis, penicillin allergy and pollen-food syndrome guidelines. During this period, he also served as lead physician for BSACI national audits. He currently contributes to SOCC in an advisory capacity.
TK has held other national roles including Clinical Lead for IQAS (RCP national accreditation program for Allergy), steering group member of BRIT registry and is currently the Chair of BSACI EDI working group.
TK led his centre to become the first UK NHS service to be accredited (2016) and re-accredited (2021) by IQAS program and led a successful application for UoB and UHB in 2020 to be designated as a WAO Centre of Excellence in Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology.
His research programme involves a multidisciplinary collaborative approach employing a combination of clinical, epidemiological and laboratory tools as well as an integrated mixed methods approach in multiple aspects of Allergy and Asthma in the UK and Low-Middle Income Countries. TK has attracted grant funding from NIHR, MRC CiC, Food Standard Agency and Institute of Global Innovation (UoB).
He supervises PhD students in UoB, mentors’ academics within UoB and in LMICs, contributes to postgraduate teaching in allergy in UoB and other UK universities and serves as an Adjunct Professor in Christian Medical College, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.
Professor Chris CorriganChris Corrigan is Emeritus Professor of Asthma, Allergy & Respiratory Science in the King’s College London Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, based at Guy’s Hospital in South London and a Principal Investigator in the UK Medical research Council Centre for Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma based in London.
He was trained in the universities of Oxford and London and read for his PhD with Professor Barry Kay at the National Heart & Lung Institute in London.
In the ensuing 25 years he has been engaged in research and has published over 160 original manuscripts on the cellular and molecular immunopathology of asthma, and particularly phenotypes of severe and resistant disease, including aspirin-sensitive and non-atopic asthma, and been awarded more than £20 million in peer reviewed research funding. His uncovering of the role of Th2 cell-mediated immunity in asthma was declared a “milestone” in asthma research by the American Thoracic Society in its centenary celebrations some years ago. More recently he has studied the role of the epithelial alarmins in generating environmentally triggered airways inflammation in asthma and the role of the calcium sensing receptor in generating the phenomenon of bronchial smooth muscle hyperresponsiveness.
Clinically he led in building the large adult allergy service, particularly the allergen immunotherapy service, and the severe asthma service based at Guy’s Hospital, London. The allergy service has been acknowledged by the World Allergy Organisation (WAO) and the Global Allergy & Asthma European Network (GA2LEN) as a Centre of Excellence, while the severe asthma service was recently commissioned by NHS England as one of the three national providers for care for patients suffering with severe asthma in Greater London.
He has always been deeply committed to undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. For many years he chaired the Royal College of Physicians Specialist Advisory Committee on Allergy and formulated the content of the UK Specialist Registrar training programme in Adult Allergy now approved by the UK’s Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Postgraduate Training Board and the General Medical Council. He is also Training Programme Director for Allergy in the London Deanery and is or has been the educational supervisor of 12 Allergy SpRs, 15 PhD students and hundreds of medical undergraduates.
Dr Katherine AnagnostouAs Director of the Food Immunotherapy Program at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston TX, Dr Anagnostou is passionate about investigating new and innovative treatments for food allergy. She obtained her PhD from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and her dissertation focused on two separate trials of Peanut Oral Immunotherapy in children. Her research work was published in The Lancet and received international recognition.
Dr Anagnostou has developed a strong interest in preventing and treating all forms of allergic disease. She is committed to improving the quality of life of allergic patients and their families
