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Speakers
Dr Hilary Allen
GP with special interest in allergy, Imperial College London / Renmore Park Surgery, Ireland
Dr. Allen maintains a clinical and academic interest in allergy. She completed the MSc Allergy at Imperial College London with Distinction and was awarded the Faculty of Medicine Dean’s prize for Allergy 2019. She designed and led a paediatric penicillin de-labelling study using telemedicine and direct oral challenges in an outpatient setting. This project was awarded the Jill Warner prize 2019 at Imperial College London for research having the most impact on patient care and received a prize at the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) in Lisbon 2019.
Dr. Allen is undertaking a PhD in paediatric milk allergy overdiagnosis at Imperial College London and has published her research on this subject. She continues to work clinically as a GP and in allergy.
Dr Peter Arkwright
Senior Lecturer in Paediatric Allergy and Immunology, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, UK
Peter was involved in the identification of the most common genetic trait in allergy leading to high mast cell tryptase (HAT). Altogether, he has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles.
He previously chaired the AAAAI Skin Allergy Interest group and was a PI for the successful trials on dupilumab in children. He identified the unique virulence factor from Staphylococcus aureus (Sbi) that initiates atopic dermatitis. He has been an invited speaker on AD and allergies nationally and internationally.
Peter has served on the editorial board of JACI and JACI Practice. He has coordinated theme issues in JACI Practice on AD, and evidence-based management of food allergies.
Maria Birchall
Children’s Allergy Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, UK
Professor Helen Brough
Professor of Paediatric Allergy, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Children’s Allergy Service & King’s College London, School of Life Course Sciences & School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences, UK
She is Principal Investigator for the Stopping Eczema and Allergy (SEAL) study, which assesses if proactive skin care in infants with dry skin or eczema can prevent food allergies. She led the Pronuts study, evaluating selective nut consumption in nut-allergic children, and has served as a co-investigator on various peanut oral and patch immunotherapy trials. Dr. Brough has co-authored European guidelines for managing atopic eczema and contributed to significant food allergy prevention studies, including Learning Early About Peanut (LEAP, LEAP-ON, LEAP-Trio) and the Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) study.
Mrs Lucy Common
Nurse Consultant, Northern Care Alliance, UK
She studied at Kings College London (BSc (Hons) Nursing Studies) followed by further studies at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Diploma in Tropical Nursing) Southampton University (MSc Allergy) and Salford University (Non-Medical Prescribing and Graduate skills in counselling).
Lucy works in a small, dedicated, and dynamic nurse specialist team at Salford where quality and patient experience is at the centre of their work. The service has recently been re-awarded accreditation under Quality in Primary Immunodeficiency Services (QPIDS), RCP scheme. She has experience in running nurse-led general allergy clinics and Immunotherapy clinics and being involved in drug desensitisation and drug and food challenge procedures.
Lucy is Vice-President (Workforce) for BSACI, a Florence Nightingale Foundation Alumni Champion for the NW region and sits on the medical advisory panel of Immunodeficiency UK. Lucy has formed an Immunology runners’ group in Salford where she works, and they recently raised nearly £500 for Immunodeficiency UK running the Manchester 10km great run in May 2024.
Professor Chris Corrigan
Professor Emeritus of Asthma, Allergy & Respiratory Science, King’s College London, UK & Inaugural BSACI Fellow
Professor Adnan Custovic
Professor of Paediatric Allergy, Imperial College London, UK
In 2020, he was elected to the Fellowship of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2023 he was elected as EAACI Fellow. He was elected as NIHR Senior Investigator in 2023. In 2021, he was awarded a Fellowship of the Association of Physicians (FaOP). In 2015 he was awarded ERS Gold Medal for research in asthma. In 2013 he received the BSACI William Frankland Medal for outstanding contributions to clinical allergy in the UK. He delivered numerous prestigious keynote/named lectures. He publisher >450 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with>60,000 citations and h-index of 113.
He serves at the Board of Directors of the World Allergy Organisation and has served as a BSACI Secretary for two terms, and as President of Asthma section of the EAACI.
He has supervised 19 PhD/MD students to completion.
Mrs Sarah Denman
Highly Advanced Clinical Pharmacist – Immunology and Allergy, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
Dr Matt Doyle
Medical Director, Government of Jersey, Jersey, Channel Islands
Professor George du Toit
Professor of Paediatric Allergy, Evelina London, St Thomas; NHS Trust, UK
His clinical research focuses on preventing, diagnosing, and treating food allergy, drug allergy, chronic urticaria, and exercise-induced anaphylactic syndromes.
Professor Stephen R. Durham
Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine, National Heart and lung Institute and Imperial College London and Royal Brompton Hospital London, UK
Dr Johanna Feary
Honorary respiratory consultant and senior clinical research fellow, Royal Brompton Hospital and Imperial College London, UK
Professor Carsten Flohr
Chair in Dermatology & Population Health Science, St John’s Institute of Dermatology and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, UK
Carsten Flohr studied at Cambridge and Oxford Universities and then trained in both paediatrics and dermatology.
He was the first UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinician Scientist in Dermatology (2009-2014) and the first UK dermatologist to be awarded a Career Development Fellowship from the NIHR (2014-2019).
He has a particular interest in novel methods of atopic dermatitis (AD) prevention (early life risk factors), how AD links in with food allergies (transcutaneous sensitisation) and therapeutics, especially in severe AD.
He co-led the landmark Enquiring About Tolerance (EAT) trial and was Chief Investigator of the TREatment of severe eczema in children Trial (TREAT), funded by the UK Department of Health, which compared cyclosporine with methotrexate in children with recalcitrant AD. He leads the UK-Irish Atopic Eczema Systemic Therapy Register (A-STAR), as well as the European Dream-To-Treat-AD project, which brings together 5 European atopic dermatitis systemic therapy registers. In addition, Professor Flohr’s department investigates how food allergies develop through the skin, together with collaborators from King’s College London, Germany and France in the EU H2020-funded Trans-Foods consortium. He also directs the Global Atopic Dermatitis Atlas project.
Prof Flohr is a Founding Director of the International Eczema Council and Past President of the British Society of Paediatric Dermatology, as well as an Honorary Member of the Société Française de Dermatologie.
He leads the European (EuroGuiDerm/European Dermatology Forum) management guidelines for the atopic dermatitis with a colleague from Germany and is Founding Editor of the Evidence-Based Dermatology Section of the British Journal of Dermatology and the Clinical Trials Editor of the F1000 Atopic Dermatitis Section.
James Gardner
Consultant Nurse in Children’s Allergy, Allergy Centre of Excellence, London, UK
James previously completed his MSc in Allergy from the University of Southampton and focused on the use of component resolved diagnostics in peanut allergy and is an independent prescriber.
He was for many years chair and member of the Allied Health working group in the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and is current Chair of BSACI Nurses Group.
He has been involved in several European task force groups through the academy including expert panel for the anaphylaxis guideline. Other work includes competencies for allied health working in allergy, M-health and social media.
His main research interests are in food allergy, allergic rhinitis and MHealth.
He is involved with many food allergy support groups and regular on various allergy social media (Twitter/Instagram @allergynurseuk)
Professor Lene Heise Garvey
Professor, Consultant Allergologist, University of Copenhagen and Gentofte Hospital, Denmark
Dr Leanne Goh
Consultant Paediatric Allergist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust & Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust, UK
She graduated from Queen’s University, completing her Masters in Allergy at Imperial College London with distinction. She completed her postgraduate training in some of the largest tertiary allergy services in the UK, including St Mary’s Hospital and St Thomas’ Evelina Children’s Hospital. She currently leads the paediatric allergy team at St Mary’s London Hospital and the Gastrointestinal and Dermatology allergy services at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
She is a specialist in paediatric allergy – her interests include food allergy, eczema, asthma, allergic rhinitis/hayfever, chronic urticaria – with particular interests in complex gastrointestinal and skin allergies.
Outside of clinical medicine, she is committed to quality improvement and medical education. She leads on regular governance projects to ensure quality improvement and safety both locally and nationally. She co-founded the RISK (responsive in situ simulation for kids) programme when she was clinical lead for paediatric allergy at UCLH. She is particularly passionate about improving quality of care for young people.
She attends BSACI council meetings and founded the national Gastro-Allergy Network. She is also a member of several national and international Paediatric, Allergy and Gastroenterology medical societies including: EAACI, ESPGHAN, BSPGHAN and the RCPCH; particularly of note allergy representative on the ESPGHAN Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases working group.
Dr Claudia Gore
Consultant in Paediatric Allergy / Honorary Senior Lecturer, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust / Imperial College London, UK
Clinically, she has specific expertise in caring for children and young people with complex multisystem allergic disease and severe eczema and in providing as well as expanding services for allergic adolescents.
Her research background includes the role of probiotics and the gut microbiota in infant eczema, quality of life in allergic diseases, nutrition in allergic disease, allergen avoidance measures, eczema treatments and diagnostics.
Claudia is an active contributor to the EAACI Adolescent Taskforce and is the Paediatric Chair of the BSACI Transition Working Group – all aimed at improving healthcare transition for adolescents and young adults with allergic conditions.
These activities support the improvement of care for adolescents and young adults with allergic and other conditions through innovative ways of engaging patients, families, educators, health and care staff:
www.11to25hub.com
https://www.patientvoices.org.uk/terrificteens-htm
Dr Robin Gore
Consultant Respiratory Physician, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK
His main specialist clinical interest is in severe asthma and allergic airways disease. Addenbrooke’s Hospital is home to the east of England severe asthma network hub. The severe asthma team has built a region-wide inclusive holistic service for those with severe asthma – adopting, developing and sharing models of network care over the years.
He has a research interests in local clinical trials delivery and in aeroallergen exposure. He studied the latter during PhD studies at the University of Manchester.
He is a clinical co-lead for the NHS England Respiratory Network (East of England) which has delivered service improvement projects in the fields of MART therapy roll-out, housing, and asthma HCP education, in addition to projects in other key subspecialties.
He still checks in with regular general respiratory clinic and on call work.
He looks forward to taking over the BSACI president’s role in October this year.
Dr Raquel Granell
Research Statistician/ Research Fellow, University of Bristol, UK
She is also interested in sub-classes of atopic diseases. She has identified longitudinal patterns of multi-morbidity throughout childhood using latent class analysis and characterised these with environmental and genetic risk factors with the aim to improve understanding of allergic diseases and inform therapeutic development.
She has recently taken a new role related to eczema and food allergies as part of a bigger programme of research.
Dr Clive Grattan
Consultant Dermatologist, St John’s Institute of Dermatology, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Dr Padmalal Gurugama
Consultant in Clinical Immunology and Allergy, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Dr Sharon Hall
Consultant Paediatric Allergist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, UK
She completed her undergraduate training at Charing Cross and Westminster Hospital Medical school and initially completed training in general practice. She subsequently re-trained as a general paediatrician and worked as a Consultant Paediatrician at East and North Herts NHS Trust and a Network consultant at St Mary’s from 2008
She has developed specialist interests in gastroenterology and allergy developing shared care services. Since 2013 she has worked at ICHT as a tertiary paediatric allergist with interests in integrated care, multisystem allergic disease, and gastrointestinal allergy, running the complex joint allergy-gastroenterology MDT clinic with a tertiary paediatric gastroenterologist. She co- leads the N&W London Allergy network, worked with the Itchy Sneezy Wheezy projects and is a steering group member of the Gastrointestinal Allergy Paediatric (GAP), the Northwest London Asthma network, and the PCRS policy forum committee.
Other interests include coaching, quality improvement, equality, diversity and inclusion, founding the I-CAN network at ICHT and hypnotherapy.
Professor Sir Stephen Holgate
MRC Clinical Professor University of Southampton and UKRI Clean Air Champion, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK
Professor John Holloway
Associate Vice-President (interdisciplinary Research) and Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Genetics, University of Southampton, UK
Professor Judith Holloway
Professorial Fellow in Allergy, MSc Allergy Programme Lead, University of Southampton, UK
Professor Valérie Hox
Assistant professor, Cliniques Universitaires Saint Luc, Belgium
Miss Hannah Hunter
Specialist Allergy Dietitian, Guy’s Hospital, UK
Her clinical practice is combined with research and specific interests include adult oral immunotherapy, the dietary management of eosinophilic oesophagitis and investigation of emerging food allergens such as mycoprotein.
She is Treasurer for the Food Allergy Specialist Group (FASG) of the British Dietetic Association (BDA) and member of the BSACI Dietitians Strategic Group.
Professor Michael Inouye
Professor of Systems Genomics and Population Health, University of Cambridge, UK
Dr Steve Jenkins
Consultant Physician, Broomfield Hospital, UK
Professor Rodrigo Jiménez-Saiz
Group Leader, Dept. of Immunology, Princess Hospital, Spain
He completed his PhD thesis on allergen biochemistry at the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2012 and spent a year at the University of Guelph working on an immunotherapy project. He then joined the Jordana Lab at the McMaster Immunology Center, where he spent almost six years studying mechanisms underlying persistent allergies, a research effort recognized in 2020 with the EAACI AllergoPharma Research Award.
In 2018, he was granted a Juan de la Cierva scholarship and began establishing his lab in the Department of Immunology at CNB-CSIC (Spain). In 2021, he was awarded a Miguel Servet position, which he is currently fulfilling at Princess Hospital. The goal of his laboratory is to understand the principles of type 2 immunity in the context of allergic diseases, particularly concerning allergic reactions and their modulation by the microbiota, mast cell desensitization in allergen immunotherapy, and the impact of allergic inflammation on atherosclerosis.
Professor Christina Jones
Professor of Clinical Health Psychology, University of Surrey, UK
Carla-Raye Jones
Project Manager National Allergy Strategy, National Allergy Strategy Group, UK
Her credentials for this role include, previous Chief Executive of Allergy UK (2015-2023) leading the strategic growth of this national allergy charity. She has held numerous Board positions, including Co-Chair of the National Allergy Strategy Group (2018-2023), Patient Public Voice member for NHS England and NHS Improvement Specialised Immunology and Allergy Services Clinical Reference Group (CRG) for the Blood and Infection Programme of Care Board (2019-2023), and Patient Public lay member for the Royal College of Physicians Care Quality Improvement Department, Improving Quality of Allergy Services Accreditation Unit (2016-2023). Carla was elected by peers as President of the European Federation for Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients’ Associations, serving on the Board from 2017-2023. The European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) elected her as Co-Chair of the EAACI Patient Organisation Committee (2019-2022).
Previous roles include managing a specialist palliative care hospice, leading community, social, and physical regeneration in socially deprived coastal areas, and lecturing on psycho-social aspects of health and early years development. She has a master’s in social science.
Dr Mark Kacar
Locum Consultant, St James’ University Hospital, UK
Mark’s research work spans observational studies, registry development for mast cell diseases, and involvement in multiple interventional studies in the field of allergy, clinical immunology, and (as was commonly the case in 2020) COVID-19.
His research contributions have been published in notable journals such as Frontiers in Immunology, Journal of Clinical Immunology, and Rheumatology. His publications cover a wide range of topics, including hereditary alpha tryptasemia, clonal mast cell disease, autoinflammatory diseases, and inborn errors of immunity.
Professor Rebecca Knibb
Associate Professor in Health Psychology, Aston University, UK
Ms Katherine Knight
Advanced Nurse Practitioner, children’s allergy, Allergy Centre of Excellence, UK
After qualifying from the Nightingale Institute in 1998, Katherine worked at St Thomas’ hospital before moving on to a ward sister post and then community children’s nursing. It was in this role that she led on the development of an at home acute asthma service and developed an interest in asthma and allergy.
Katherine joined the children’s allergy service at St Thomas’ Hospital in 2013 as a Clinical Nurse Specialist and is experienced in nurse led allergy services, food and drug allergy, pollen, food and venom immunotherapy as well allergic rhinitis.
Katherine gained her allergy masters form Southampton in 2021 and is an independent nurse prescriber. She is a regular contributor to allergy training days and courses, having held the position of co-director of the Allergy in Practice course at the Allergy Academy from 2019-2023.
Katherine is a member of the BSACI nurses’ group and is the nurse’s conference representative. She is keen to show that nurses have a vital role to play in UK allergy teams.
Professor M Thirumala Krishna
Chair of Allergy, Clinical Immunology and Global Health, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham, UK
TK is Clinical Lead for the Allergy module within the MSc Respiratory Medicine course at University of Birmingham. He is Visiting Professor at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India where he contributes to research and postgraduate teaching.
He served as Chair of EDI working group and as a member of standards of care committee of the BSACI. He is the lead author of the BSACI venom guideline and co-author of allergen specific immunotherapy, pollen food syndrome, penicillin allergy and allergy in military.
TK was awarded the prestigious Jack Pepys lectureship in 2021 by the BSACI.
Dr Mich Lajeunesse
Consultant in Paediatric Allergy & Immunology, Southampton Children’s Hospital, UK
Dr Janice Layhadi
Research Associate, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Nick Makwana
Consultant Paediatrician (Paediatric Allergy), Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals & University of Birmingham, UK
Dr Susana Marinho
Consultant Allergist and Clinical Lead of the Allergy Centre, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester University Foundation Trust & Honorary Senior Lecturer, The University of Manchester, UK
She was appointed as Consultant in 2009 and has been instrumental in the development of the Allergy Centre at Wythenshawe Hospital, which has since expanded considerably to become the leading (and largest) service in the NW and one of the leading services in the UK, with excellent reputation in the Allergy and Immunology community. The Allergy Centre provides comprehensive allergy care for adults, with close links with the Paediatrics Service; it is also an integrated clinical and research unit with an active research programme. She is/has been PI or co-investigator in urticaria and food allergy trials.
Susana has extensive experience in all aspects of clinical allergy and her specialist areas of interest are drug hypersensitivity and food allergy.
She is a member of the BSACI’s Standards of Care Committee. She is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester and has a keen interest in education in Allergy. She is a member of the Allergy Specialist Advisory Committee from the JRCPTB and TPD for Allergy at HEE-NW. In addition to Allergy trainees, she regularly teaches Foundation, Internal Medicine and Respiratory trainees, GPs, and other clinicians/AHPs; she is also co-lead and teach for the Hypersensitivity Module of the Immunology MSc from the University of Manchester.
In addition, Susana is deeply committed to the further development of Allergy in the UK and is a member of the Allergy and Immunology CRG for Allergy, NHS England. Until October 2023, she was the Allergy Chair of the North West Allergy and Clinical Immunology Network (NWACIN) for 9 years, and has been instrumental in fomenting joint working across the region’s services and developing regional management and referral pathways for primary care for common allergic conditions.
Dr Deborah Marriage
Consultant nurse, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, UK
Deb is joint Bristol (BNSSG) ICS lead for asthma and is involved in local training programmes for GPs and practice nurses. Deb is a Core20PLUS5 Ambassador which focusses on addressing healthcare inequalities. She delivers community outreach clinics with primary care colleagues in deprived areas and enjoys holding clinics in unconventional locations to increase engagement within local communities.
She enjoys research and her particular interests are in asthma, in egg and peanut allergies, and in looking at alternative ways of delivering healthcare.
Dr Bryan Martin
Emeritus Professor of Medicine, The Ohio State University, USA
Dr Rosan Meyer
Paediatric Allergy Dietitian, University of Winchester, Dept Nutrition and Dietetics, UK & KU Leuven, Department of Medicine, Belgium
Dr Shuaib Nasser
Consultant Allergist and Associate Professor, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS foundation Trust, UK
He has worked in a number of roles to improve the delivery of allergy care and reduce variability in standards. He set up and chaired the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Allergy (BSACI) Standards of Care Committee leading to the publication of 10 national Allergy guidelines. He was a member of the Resuscitation Council Working Group that published the first guidelines on the management of anaphylaxis. He was a lead author on the Royal College of Physicians National Review of Asthma Deaths, chaired the NICE Drug Allergy Guideline published in 2014 and was a member of the steering committee for the Royal College of Anaesthetists Perioperative Anaphylaxis National Audit Project (NAP6).
In 2011 he was awarded the William Frankland BSACI award for outstanding services to Allergy and from 2015 to 2018 served as BSACI President.
Professor Ian Pavord
Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Respiratory Medicine Unit and Oxford Respiratory NIHR BRC, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, UK
He has a research interest in the clinical aspects of inflammatory airway diseases and has pioneered the use of non-invasive measures of airway inflammation in the assessment of these conditions. He has identified a number of clinically important phenotypes of inflammatory airway disease, has discovered clinically important biomarkers, and has played a lead role in the clinical development of three of the most promising new treatments for severe airway disease.
Professor Pavord was co-editor of Thorax from 2010-2015, Chief Medical Officer of Asthma UK from 2008-14, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine from 2005-10 and Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal since 2016-2023. He is the author of over 560 publications and has an H-index of 123 making him the highest cited researcher in asthma worldwide. He received the 2016 European Respiratory Society (ERS) Gold Medal for his research and gave the Cournand Lecture at the 2004 ERS meeting. He chaired the 2017 Lancet Commission on asthma.
Professor Elizabeth Phillips
Center for Drug Safety and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, USA
Professor Thomas Platts-Mills
Research/Clinician, Department of Medicine, University of Virginia, USA
Liane Reeves
Adult Allergy Specialist Dietitian, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
Recently, she co-authored diet sheets on histamine and salicylate sensitivity for the BDA Food Allergy Specialist Group. Liane is also a member of the BDA Gastroenterology Specialist Group and the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis, having earned a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Hypnosis from Birmingham University in 2021.
Additionally, she co-authored the BDA evidence-based dietary guidelines for IBS in adults and has contributed to various research papers and resources on food chemical sensitivities, eosinophilic esophagitis, and the development of a training course for dietitians on cow’s milk allergy.
Miss Catherine Rennie
Consultant Rhinologist, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, UK
With a passion for research and innovation, Catherine completed a PhD on Sinonasal airflow and transport at Imperial College London, where she fostered interdisciplinary collaboration between the departments of Otolaryngology, Aeronautics, and Nuclear Medicine. As an honorary research fellow and lecturer in the Aeronautics department, she remains actively engaged in cutting-edge research initiatives.
In recognition of her contributions, Catherine was recognized as one of the top 50 women in engineering in 2021 for her collaborative efforts in developing aerosol containment strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her commitment to advancing surgical techniques extends to her ongoing work on aerosol containment devices for surgical procedures.
Within the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Catherine demonstrates a particular interest in medical rhinology and undertakes joint clinics with the respiratory team at the Royal Brompton Hospital.
Professor Graham Roberts
Consultant in paediatric allergy and respiratory medicine, University of Southampton, UK
Graham Roberts moved to Southampton in 2004 as a clinical senior lecturer in paediatric allergy and respiratory medicine; he became Director of the David Hide Centre in 2005. He was promoted to Professor in 2011. He is chair of the adolescent and young adult task force of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and a past Chair of the Paediatric Section. He is President of the BSACI and is a past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy.
Dr Maria Ruano
Allergist, Hospital Clinic Barcelona, Spain
Dr. Ruano completed her doctoral studies at the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, where she focused on the molecular profiles and anaphylaxis risks associated with lipid transfer proteins, achieving a Cum Laude distinction.
Her professional career includes a fellowship at the Manchester Institute of Biotechonology and at the Research Institute of Hospital Clínic (IDIBAPS) and roles as a pre-doctoral researcher on several projects under the Instituto Carlos III. Her research primarily addresses hypersensitivity reactions to foods and drugs, with numerous publications in esteemed journals.
Dr. Ruano is actively involved in the scientific community and collaborative research networks, including RETIC ARADyAL and RICORS REI (National Spanish Research Network), and is a member of various professional societies such as EAACI, SEAIC (Spanish Society), and SCAIC (Catalan Society). She collaborates within two food allergy EAACI Task-Force, contributes to the food allergy committees of both Spanish and Catalan Societies, and has presented her findings at multiple national and international conferences.
Dr Chris Rutkowski
Consultant Allergist, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London, UK
Professor Alexandra Santos
Professor of Paediatric Allergy, King’s College London and Evelina London – Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK
Alexandra qualified in Medicine from the University of Coimbra, completed her training in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Coimbra University Hospital and her PhD in Allergy and Immunology at King’s College London, supervised by Professor Gideon Lack. Over the years, Alexandra has continued to combine clinical activity in Paediatric Allergy with clinical and laboratory translational research into food allergy.
The Santos Lab aims to improve the accuracy and safety of food allergy diagnosis and our understanding of the mechanisms of food allergy and oral tolerance in IgE-sensitised children to identify new targets for definitive treatment of food allergy.
Alexandra is Chair of the Board of the Immunology Section of European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), Chair of the EAACI Food Allergy Guidelines and voting member of EAACI Executive Committee.
Dr Louise Savic
Consultant Anaesthetist, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK
Professor Sinisa Savic
Professor of Clinical immunology, University of Leeds, UK
His research program focuses on identifying the genetic causes underlying the pathogenesis of inborn errors of immunity and associated acquired conditions. Since 2019, he has served as Clinical Director at the Leeds NIHR BioResource Centre. He also leads national recruitment efforts for specific disease areas, including Adult-Onset Still’s Disease and systemic autoinflammatory diseases (SAID). He has been the Chief Investigator (CI) and Principal Investigator (PI) on numerous trials related to CSU and hereditary angioedema.
Currently, he serves as the Chair of the British Society for Immunology’s Clinical Immunology Professional Network.
Dr Guy Scadding
Allergy consultant, Royal Brompton Hospital, UK
Dr Glenis K. Scadding
Hon. Consultant Allergist & Rhinologist, Royal National ENT Hospital, London, UK
She trained at Cambridge University and the Middlesex Hospital, to which she later returned as an allergy trainee under Jonathan Brostoff and Ivan Roitt.
She is also EUFOREA Vice President and Lead for Rhinitis and
Scientific Chief Editor for Rhinology Section, Frontiers in Allergy.
Glenis is a BSACI Past President and has been awarded the BSACI William Frankland medal for outstanding services to UK Clinical Allergy as well as Allergy UK-Allergist of the Year- 2011, European Academy of Allergy and Immunology Clemens von Pirquet award for research, British Medical Association -Walter Jobson Horne Award and World Allergy Organization – Outstanding Clinician.
In 2020 she gave the BSACI Jack Pepys Lecture.
Her research interests include rhinitis and its co-morbidities, including asthma and rhinosinusitis; aspirin hypersensitivity and sublingual immunotherapy.
She is the author of over 400 peer- reviewed publications (H index 82) and of 2 novels, proceeds from which go to dementia research.
Professor Jürgen Schwarze
Chair of Child Life and Health, The University of Edinburgh
After qualifying in medicine from Freiburg University, Germany, and training in paediatrics, Prof Schwarze started working on immune responses in RSV bronchiolitis and allergic airway disease as a post-doctoral fellow at National Jewish Health, Denver, Colorado. He continued his research at Ruhr-University Bochum (Germany), at Imperial College London as a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow, and since 2007 at the Centre for Inflammation Research at the University of Edinburgh. Prof Schwarze’s research focuses on mucosal immune priming at the interface between innate and adaptive immunity in RSV infection and subsequent reactive airway disease.
Dr Priya Sellaturay
Adult allergy consultant, Cambridge University Hospital, UK
Dr Sellaturay has a particular interest in contrast and excipient allergy. She has authored publications on polyethylene glycol allergy, including a highly cited paper in CEA and being cited in the Green Book, the UK’s official guide to immunisation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she was an active member of the vaccine advisory group and played a crucial role in the investigation and management of the first two patients worldwide who experienced anaphylaxis to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
Heather Sharp
Advanced Nurse Practitioner, The Nunhead Surgery, London, UK
Heather previously worked for many years at Guys and St Thomas NHS foundation trust in paediatric dermatology and paediatric allergy. She has experience of clinical, research and teaching in these fields. She has significant experience in setting up and running nurse led clinics in both dermatology and allergy and asthma. She has had responsibility for monitoring patients on systemic treatments for eczema, teaching parents on the Eczema Education Programme, recruiting patients to eczema research studies and teaching on local, national, and international conferences. She has also worked on the nurse led allergy day unit managing children having food challenges, immunotherapy, skin prick testing and can manage anaphylaxis. More recently, she worked as a community children’s asthma nurse in Lewisham. This helped to develop an understanding of community care, enabled engagement with GPs, schools and other community health care providers.
Professor Angela Simpson
Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Manchester, UK
She has been working on the Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study (MAAS) since its inception in 1995. Her work has contributed to the understanding of phenotypes of wheeze, of atopy and of the likely presence of multiple endotypes of allergic disease. In particular, together with experts in computer science she pioneered the application of machine learning and Bayesian Inference in allergic disease demonstrating that atopy is not an all or nothing phenomenon. She is chief investigator of the Manchester Allergy Respiratory and Thoracic Surgery Biobank (ManARTS); to date >9000 patients have been recruited from clinics in secondary and tertiary care. As asthma programme lead for the Manchester BRC, she set up the Rapid Access Diagnostics in Asthma Study (RADicA) and has tested national and international diagnostic guidelines. She has recently completed the Food Standard Agency-funded Prevalence of Adult Food Allergy Study, (PAFA,~ 5000 adults recruited). She conducts clinics in general respiratory medicine in addition to adult asthma and allergy clinics.
Dr Isabel Skypala
Consultant Allergy Dietitian, Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals, UK
Professor Helen Smith
Professor of General Practice, University of Keele, UK and National University of Singapore
Professor Reiko Tanaka
Professor of Computational Systems Biology & Medicine, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Ronald van Ree
Professor of Molecular and Translational Allergology, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, The Netherlands
His research group focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of allergic sensitization and the role of allergen structure and exogenous environmental, microbial and dietary factors in this process. Epidemiology of food allergy, in and outside Europe, has been at the center of his attention for the last two decades. Other areas of attention are component-resolved diagnosis, allergen standardization of diagnostic and therapeutic allergen products, and the development of innovative AIT approaches for the treatment of respiratory and food allergies, using recombinant and nano-technologies and novel adjuvants.
Dr Marta Vazquez-Ortiz
Consultant in Paediatric Allergy, Honorary Senior Lecturer, Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust, Imperial College London, UK
Marta did her training in Paediatrics and Paediatric Allergy, and her PhD in food allergy in Spain. She moved to the UK in 2014 with a EU-funded Marie Curie Postdoctoral Individual Fellowship.
Her research so far has focused on food allergy and specifically on FPIES and food immunotherapy, quality of life and improved allergy diagnostics. Her PhD contributed to better understanding the safety of food immunotherapy. She leads on the largest international collaboration investigating diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for acute FPIES using a ‘whole-omics’ approach.
Marta is has been a member of the Paediatric Section Board of EAACI for 7 years, where she co-leads in taskforces aiming at improving transition care for allergic adolescents and clinical outcomes in food allergy.
Dr Timothy Watts
Consultant Allergist & Clinical Lead for Allergy, Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
He is also an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, where he is a faculty member on the MSc Allergy postgraduate programme.
Dr Watts qualified from Barts and The London Medical School and was later awarded a competitive NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship in Allergy. He completed specialty training in Adult Allergy within Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospitals.
Dr Watts has specialist clinical and research interests in delayed (Type IV) drug hypersensitivity and cutaneous allergy (patch testing) and has published widely in these fields. He additionally developed and leads a tertiary drug patch testing service at Homerton University Hospital, which functions as a regional referral centre within London for the investigation of delayed-type drug eruptions. His clinical research in particular focuses on the utility, methodology, efficacy and safety of Drug Patch Testing, and the wider investigation of Delayed (Type IV) T-cell mediated drug hypersensitivity reactions. He is also a Member of the WAO Drug Hypersensitivity Reactions Committee.
Dr Christian Woehlk
PostDoc, Immunology, Global Research & Drug Discovery, ALK & Respiratory Research Unit, Dept. Infectious and Respiratory Medicine, University Hospital Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg, Copenhagen
Dr Woehlk’s PhD project, which originated from a clinical problem, was validated using two different epidemiologic approaches to ensure robustness before testing the hypothesis in a clinical randomized controlled trial (RCT). This research investigated the effect of allergen immunotherapy on antiviral immunity in patients with allergic asthma, utilizing bronchoscopy to sample lung specimens. Dr Woehlk is dedicated to exploring the complex mechanisms underlying asthma and allergy immunology to improve patient outcomes. This dedication is evident in multiple contributions to studies elucidating their pathophysiology and advancing innovative therapeutics at the trial unit at Copenhagen University Hospital, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg. A passion for exploring immune cell modification and linking this with the intricate interactions between environmental and genetic factors in asthma and allergy drives Dr Woehlk’s goal of translating cutting-edge scientific knowledge into practical solutions for patients.