Speakers

Dr. Hilary Allen studied medicine in Trinity College Dublin. On successful completion of specialist training in General Practice, she graduated a Member of the Irish College of General Practitioners 2009. Having worked in general practice in Ireland, she further expanded her skillset in Australia where she worked for almost 3 years. She completed a Certificate in Dermatology from the RACGP/Australasian College of Dermatology 2015 and gained additional experience working in paediatric dermatology and allergy clinics.

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 Arkwright is a Senior Lecturer/Consultant in Paediatric Allergy & Immunology at the University of Manchester & Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. After obtaining his CST in Paediatric Allergy and Immunology in 2002, Peter founded the paediatric allergy service in the North West. Since 2008, he has chaired the North West Paediatric Allergy Network, the largest of its kind in the UK, incorporating two tertiary and 20 District General Hospitals. In 2016, Peter led the NWPAN successful bid for a Future Hospital Initiative, the only paediatric theme to be incorporated into Royal College of Physicians-based scheme.

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.

Helen Brough is a Professor of Paediatric Allergy at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, St. Thomas’ Hospital, and King’s College London. Her roles include being President of the Royal Society of Medicine Allergy and Immunology Section (2022-2024), Medical Advisor for the Natasha Allergy Research Foundation. She was the previous Chair of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Paediatric Section (2019-2022).

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.

Lucy Common is a Nurse Consultant in Immunology and Allergy for the Northern Care Alliance, Salford where she has been in post since 2010. Prior to this she was an adult nurse specialist in allergy for 3 years at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

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.

Chris Corrigan is Emeritus Professor of Asthma, Allergy & Respiratory Science at King’s College London. His specialist field of research is the molecular immunopathology of asthma and allergic diseases, with particular interest in the role of T cells, epithelial alarmins in generating Th2-type inflammation and remodelling in the asthmatic airways, and the role of the Calcium Sensing Receptor in the pathogenesis of intrinsic bronchial smooth muscle hyperresponsiveness. He has nearly 200 original, peer reviewed research articles and has raised more than £13 million in research funding. For many years he was chair of the JRCPTB Specialist Advisory Committee on Allergy, during which time he assembled the adult Allergy training curriculum, establishing the speciality for the first time as an independent medical speciality. The adult Allergy service which he founded at Guy’s Hospital has been acknowledged as internationally outstanding by the WAO and GA2LEN. He has served the BSACI as chair of the Education Subcommittee, Scientific Meetings Organiser and Secretary. He has been honoured by the BSACI with the Jack Pepys and William Frankland awards, a personal award for outstanding service and, most recently, Inaugural Fellowship.

Adnan Custovic is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College London. His research has focused upon the origins and natural history of asthma and allergy across the life-course. He pioneered the use of data-driven methodologies in the analysis of complex data, including some of the first uses of machine learning in respiratory medicine/allergy. He established the Frankland-Kay Centre for Allergy at Imperial and serves as its first Director.

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.

Sarah Denman MRPharmS (consultant) has worked within the Clinical Immunology and Allergy MDT in Leeds for >15 years.  In 2023 she was successfully credentialled by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society as working at consultant level, the first pharmacist credentialled in Clinical Immunology and Allergy.  She is an independent prescriber and undertakes chronic urticaria and virtual drug allergy pre-assessment clinics within Leeds.  She co-ordinates the West Yorkshire Immunoglobulin Assessment Panel.  Nationally she was pharmacy representative on the NHSE Immunology and Allergy Clinical Reference Group for several years and is currently on the steering group for BSI-CIPN and a member of the NHSE immunoglobulin oversight group.  She established and manages, alongside her peers, the UK Immunology and Allergy Pharmacists Network and is a member of BSACI Allergy Education Network.  She is currently looking to lead on the development of a competency framework for pharmacists working in the specialty.

Professor Shyamali Dharmage is a world-recognised leader in Life Course Epidemiology of Chronic Respiratory Diseases. She developed and leads the internationally recognized Allergy & Lung Health Unit, Centre for Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of Melbourne. She is the custodian and PI of two of the world’s key studies in allergies and lung health; including NHMRC funded Melbourne Atopy Cohort Study (MACS) and Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study (TAHS). She has more than 550 publications and has been awarded >$75 million in research grants. Professor Dharmage is currently the top ranked obstructive lung diseases epidemiologist in Australia and third globally.  She is in the top 0.018% among 219,873 all obstructive lung disease researchers worldwide (Expertscape).

Her recognition of research excellence is evidenced by national and international advisory board invitations such as the Lancet Commissioner in COPD. She was also a member of the expert committee that developed the Australian COPD Blueprint and led its prevention chapter. In recognition of her contributions, she has been awarded the esteemed title of Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor, four prestigious Fellow titles (Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, European Respiratory Society, College of Community Physicians of Sri Lanka, Dame Kate Campbell) and the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Matt Doyle is a General Practitioner with a specialist interest in Allergy. He has sat on guideline groups for allergy-based NICE guidelines (Anaphylaxis, Drug Allergy and Asthma) and is a keen advocate for allergy training in Primary Care. He works as a Medical Director for Primary Care in Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Professor George du Toit is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at King’s College London and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

His clinical research focuses on preventing, diagnosing, and treating food allergy, drug allergy, chronic urticaria, and exercise-induced anaphylactic syndromes.

Stephen Durham is Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine and Head of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. He is Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital London. His research interests include allergic rhinitis and asthma and translational studies of allergen immunotherapy. He is Past President of the BSACI (2006-09) and elected Fellow of EAACI in 2021. He is a member of the Steering Committee (2005- ongoing) and chaired the Allergy and Asthma Interest Group (2012-2020) of the Immune Tolerance Network, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, USA.

Dr Feary is an Honorary Respiratory Consultant at Royal Brompton Hospital and Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, a combination of roles that allows her to carry out clinical work and research as well as teaching. She completed her undergraduate degree in Nottingham and undertook specialty training in the West Midlands and in London. Her clinical interests include a broad range of occupational lung diseases and difficult asthma. She oversees the department specialist occupational and environmental laboratory which can carry out bespoke immunology testing for allergens. Her research focus is on the respiratory health of working populations. She is Chair of the British Thoracic Society Specialist Advisory Group on Occupational and Environmental Lung Disease and a member of the Group of Occupational Respiratory Disease Specialists (GORDS).

Professor Flohr holds the Chair in Dermatology and Population Health Science at St John’s Institute of Dermatology, King’s College London, where he is also Lead for Research & Development.

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.

Professor Lene Heise Garvey is a specialist in Anaesthesiology with subspecialisation in Allergology. She is co-founder and Head of the Danish Anaesthesia Allergy Centre, the Danish National Reference Centre for investigation of perioperative hypersensitivity. She is a Professor in Allergology with special focus on Anaphylaxis and Drug Allergy at the University of Copenhagen and a consultant in the Allergy Clinic, Gentofte Hospital, Denmark. She is vice chair of the Danish Society of Allergology, Chair of the EAACI Drug Allergy Interest Group, Chair of the International Suspected Perioperative Allergic Reactions Group (ISPAR) and member of the WAO drug hypersensitivity committee.

Dr Claudia Gore is a consultant in paediatric allergy and lead for the adolescent allergy service at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London.

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 is a consultant respiratory physician at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.

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 has worked as a Research Statistician at Bristol University since 2006. She completed her undergraduate degree in Statistical Sciences in Valencia (Spain) in 2002, then a PhD in Medical Statistics in Bristol (UK) in 2006 and a Master on Genetic Epidemiology in Cardiff University in 2010. Her research has focused on the aetiology of asthma, lung function trajectories and multimorbidity.

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 Grattan has worked as a consultant at St John’s Institute of Dermatology since 1995. He has a special interest in cutaneous allergy, including mast cell disorders.

Dr Padmalal Gurugama is a consultant in Clinical Immunology and Allergy at Cambridge University Hospital since 2020. He completed his undergraduate degree in 2000 and went on to complete the postgraduate training in internal medicine and became a consultant in Internal Medicine in Sri Lanka. Dr Padmalal Gurugama worked as a clinical Fellow in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at St Mary’s Hospital, London and Kings College Hospital, London before starting his Allergy and Immunology training at Cambridge University Hospital in 2015. In addition, he is also the Training Programme Director for Clinical Immunology and Allergy for East of England since 2022. He conducts regular outpatient clinics and inpatient reviews for a wide range of immunological and allergic diseases such as primary and secondary immune deficiencies, hereditary angioedema, chronic urticaria, allergic rhinitis, food allergy, venom allergy and drug allergies. He co-leads the severe urticaria and hereditary angioedema services at CUH. He has a special interest in hereditary angioedema and is a principal investigator in several clinical trials for hereditary angioedema. He is the chief investigator for UK for the the only gene editing trial for hereditary angioedema.

Dr Hall has worked at Imperial College Hospital NHS Trust as a paediatric allergy consultant since 2013.

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.

Stephen is MRC Clinical Professor at the University of Southampton with interested in the mechanisms and treatment of asthma with over 1000 research publications. He is a Past president of the BSACI, the British Thoracic Society, the British Association for Lung Research and the Collegium International Allergologicum. His work has been recognised by international awards such as the King Faisal and J. Allyn Taylor International Prizes in Medicine, the British Thoracic Society and RCP Medals and the Bazalgette Professorship in public health, four honorary doctorates at European and UK universities as well as a number of Scientific Achievement Awards including the 2022 Imperial College Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was the inaugural chair of the DH Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, DEFRA Chair of the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards and a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He led the RCP/RCPH 2016 Report “Every Breath we Take…” and the RCPCH/RCP Report “The Inside story…” drawing together the health evidence of outdoor and indoor air pollution. He is currently UKRI Clean Air Champion and is Special Advisor to the RCP on Air Quality. He was appointed CBE in 2011 for contributions to Clinical Science and Knighted in 2020 for Medical Research.

Professor Holloway is Associate Vice President (Interdisciplinary Research) and Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Genetics at the University of Southampton. His research program focuses on genetics, epigenetics and functional genomics of allergic and respiratory diseases. His current research includes exploring the mechanisms of prenatal programming of respiratory disease and epigenetic mechanisms underlying atopy and asthma susceptibility; gene-environment interactions in the early life origins of asthma and COPD; characterization of genetic factors influencing asthma severity; and identification and validation of novel asthma susceptibility genes. Professor Holloway has published extensively in the field of allergy and respiratory genetics and details of his publications can be found here.

Professor Judith Holloway is Professorial Fellow in Allergy and programme lead for the University of Southampton’s MSc Allery at the University of Southampton. As a patient with severe allergies herself, Judith is passionate about providing education that empowers her healthcare professional students to be able to improve their patient care, clinical services and become the allergy leaders of the future. She completed her doctorate with Professor Sir Stephen Holgate and postdoctoral studies with Professor John Warner. In 2007 Judith was appointed Programme Lead of the MSc Allergy and awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Award in 2010 and 2018 for her work on the MSc Allergy programme. She became a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2014 and in 2017, her education in allergy was recognised by the internationally acclaimed award of National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Prof Holloway’s MSc Allergy course is recognised worldwide and is part of Southampton Allergy Centre, a World Allergy Organisation (WAO) Centre of Excellence. Prof Holloway led the BSACI Allergy Education Network and chaired the first ever BSACI National Allergy Education Strategy which was published in October 2021. She also created the BSACI Allergy Education Showcase for the annual conference, to champion, share and inspire all healthcare professionals in the design and delivery of excellent allergy education for all.

Valerie Hox works as an academic rhinologist at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels, Belgium. She obtained her PhD in 2012 in immunology of the upper airways and added to this a research fellowship at the NIH in Bethesda, MD, USA 2 years later. After this, she finished her clinical training which she completed by a surgical fellowship in anterior skull base surgery at the QEH in Birmingham, UK. In her clinical practice she combines third-line medical and surgical rhinology and is the PI of several phase III commercial trials in the field of allergic rhinitis and chronic rhinosinusitis. In addition, she has a 50% assistant professor position at the UCLouvain in Brussels where she teaches and is the PI of the upper airway axis of the translational immunology lab.

Hannah is a specialist adult allergy dietitian at Guy’s Hospital in London where she has worked since 2013. Her undergraduate training was at King’s College London and she completed the MSc Allergy at Imperial College London in 2017 with the Dean’s Award.

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.

Prof Inouye is Professor of Systems Genomics and Population Health at the University of Cambridge, Theme Lead for Data Science and Population Health at the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre, Director of Data Sciences at the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, and Director of the Cambridge Baker Systems Genomics Initiative. His lab has three main research programs: (i) Improved prediction, prevention and management of common diseases through the development and translation of polygenic scores, (ii) Uncovering insights into disease aetiology through integrative analysis of multi-omics data, and (iii) Development of open computational tools and resources which support translational research.

Dr Steve Jenkins works in Essex as Consultant physician in Respiratory medicine with an interest in allergy and severe asthma. He qualified in Newcastle, and did postgraduate training in London, including research into the effects of air pollution on atopic asthma. As a consultant, he has combined working in Respiratory and GIM in a busy DGH with setting up a comprehensive allergy service covering the full range of services including immunotherapy and drug allergy. Alongside this he runs a severe asthma clinic serving Mid and South Essex offering biologic therapy. He is chair of Respiratory Medicine for Mid and South Essex hospitals NHS Trust. Currently he sits on BSACI Council and is co-chair of the Adult Allergy Committee.

Dr. Rodrigo Jiménez-Saiz is a Miguel Servet Investigator in the Department of Immunology at Princess Hospital (Spain). He also serves as a part-time Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at McMaster University (Canada) and in the Faculty of Experimental Sciences at Francisco de Vitoria University (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.

Chrissie is a Professor in Clinical Health Psychology, Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). Chrissie is the Research Director and Research Excellence Lead for the School of Psychology at the University of Surrey. Prior to joining the University of Surrey, Chrissie spent 12 years at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School starting out in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, before moving to the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine. Chrissie’s main research focuses on the design and evaluation of psychological and behavioural interventions for individuals and their families, with long term conditions with specific expertise in asthma and allergy and mental health comorbidities, placing strong emphasis on involving patients and public in the research she undertakes. Chrissie has expertise in multi-method evaluations and synthesising current evidence using systematic reviews and meta-analysis.

Carla Jones was appointed in May 2024 by the National Allergy Strategy Group to provide project management coordination for the development of a UK National Allergy Strategy.

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.

Mark Kacar is currently a Locum Consultant in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at St. James Hospital, Leeds. He holds a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Ljubljana and is a certified specialist in Allergy and Clinical Immunology by the Slovene Medical Council and the EAACI UEMS.

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.

Dr Rebecca Knibb is an Associate Professor in Health Psychology at Aston University with 30 years of experience of conducting research into the psychological impact of allergies.  She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and conference proceedings in this field.  Her research interests include the health-related quality of life and mental well-being of children, adolescents and parents who are managing allergic conditions and asthma.  Her research group is running projects to improve understanding of allergy management and improve global access to psychological support for food allergy.  They are also currently developing interventions to help patients and families manage food allergy anxiety. She is the Chair of the Psychology Working Group for the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology and sits on the UK Expert Advisory Group for Allergy. She is also a member of European Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology Task Force groups, including a Task Force to investigate the impact of allergy on adolescents.

Katherine is a children’s allergy Advanced Nurse Practitioner and currently works at the Allergy Centre of Excellence.

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.

Mich is a consultant in Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at Southampton Children’s Hospital, a World Allergy Organization National Centre of Excellence. He is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Southampton, contributes to postgraduate teaching nationally and is involved in clinical research on food allergy and immunotherapy including the NATASHA study. His research is supported by NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre. Mich is founding chair of the BSACI Registry for Immunotherapy (BRIT) since its establishment in 2018. He is a self-supporting minister in the Church of England. He was ordained in 2021 and is serving his curacy in the Winchester Diocese.

Dr Makwana graduated from the University of Birmingham Medical School and completed his paediatric training within the West Midlands. He went on to work at Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool and gained an MD from the Department of Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Liverpool. He is currently a consultant at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust and leads the multi-disciplinary paediatric allergy clinic which sees over 3500 patients per year. The service offers innovative treatments including nasal phototherapy, sublingual immunotherapy and specific oral tolerance induction.  His clinical and educational work has been recognized with accreditation from the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and most recently as appointed chair of the Paediatric Allergy Committee of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI), as well as the Title of Honorary Professor (Institute of clinical sciences) at the University of Birmingham.

Susana graduated from the Medical School at University Nova de Lisboa, Portugal, and completed Specialist Training in Allergy in Lisbon.  She moved to Manchester in 2005 to do a PhD in gene-environment interactions in asthma and allergy, when she started working in the allergy clinic at Wythenshawe Hospital.

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.

Deb Marriage is Consultant nurse for allergy and asthma at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children where she has worked since 2002.  She previously worked in allergy at St Mary’s Hospital, London. Deb has completed the MSc in Allergy at Southampton University and a Professional Doctorate in Health at the University of Bath. She is an advocate for nurse-led services and in promoting the extended role of nurses.

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.

Rosan completed her degree in dietetics in South Africa in 1996 and finished her MSc in 2004 and PhD at Imperial College London in 2008. She was the principal research dietitian for the gastro-allergy at Great Ormond Street Hospital until December 2015, and after this worked with the allergy team at St. Thomas Hospital until 2018. She has a busy paediatric dietetic practice in London specialising in growth faltering, food hypersensitivity and aversive eating and has published numerous articles and books around this topic. She is currently visiting Professor at KU Leuven, on their MSc on on Deglutology and University of Winchester on their anthropometry and ARFID module.  She was the chair for the EAACI Allied Health and Primary Section, and chair of the International Network for Diet and Nutrition in Allergy until mid 2024 and is a Trustee for ARFID Awareness UK. Rosan is the current secretary for the Immunomodulation and Nutrition Working Group from EAACI and co-research dietitian on an NIHR grant assessing the impact of elimination diets on growth in children with eczema.

Ian D Pavord, MA DM FRCP FERS FMedSci is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford and Honorary Consultant Physician at the Oxford University Hospitals. He is a member of congregation at the University of Oxford and a Professorial Fellow of St Edmund Hall. He was a Consultant Physician from 1995 and Honorary Professor of Medicine from 2005 to 2013 at the Institute for Lung Health, Glenfield Hospital, University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. He was elected an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2011&14, an inaugural Fellow of the European Respiratory Society in 2014 and a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Science in 2015.

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.

Dr. Elizabeth Phillips is Professor of Medicine, Dermatology, Pharmacology and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University Medical School. She is the John A. Oates Chair in Clinical Research and Director of Personalized Immunology in the Center for Drug Safety and Immunology.  She is  a physician scientist clinically trained in Infectious diseases, immunology  and clinical pharmacology who has established new clinical and research programs in drug  hypersensitivity, pharmacogenomics and personalized immunology across different healthcare systems.  She has published over 400 peer reviewed articles and book chapters related to hypersensitivity reactions to drugs and vaccines. She is recognized for elucidating mechanisms and genetic determinants of drug hypersensitivity which have transformed research, clinical practice and training in the United States and Internationally.   Her discovery through translation pipeline continues to pioneer strategies to prevent, diagnose and mitigate harm from true drug hypersensitivity and she is applying novel technologies to understand the single cell pathology of drug hypersensitivity at the site of tissue damage leading to identification of new therapeutic targets.  She pioneered new guidance dedicated to the care of drug hypersensitivity patients and her clinics have acted as a model within the US and internationally.

Dr. Platts-Mills was educated at Balliol College Oxford and St. Thomas’ Hospital followed by Fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Hopkins in the Ishizaka laboratory.  In 1974 he returned to London.  His research on the role of dust mites in asthma included purification of Der.p.1 and evidence about airborne fecal particles.  In 1982 he moved to Virginia as Division Head.  His continued work on mites lead to the publication of Sporik et al NEJMed 1990, and a Merit award from NIAID.  His work on the role of indoor allergens included a study on three middle schools, which lead to the description of a modified Th2 response to cat allergens (Lancet).  In 2006 he was the President of AAAAI and in 2010 was elected to the Royal Society in London.  Work in his group focused on understanding alpha-gal syndrome, development of the IgE assay for this sugar (Chung et al NEJMed 2008), proof that tick bites cause sensitization, and evidence that this reactions to meat are delayed by 3-5 hours, which led to his second Merit Award in 2018.

Liane has served as the Adult Allergy Specialist Dietitian at Churchill Hospital, Oxford, for 10 years after graduating with an MSc in Allergy from Southampton University. Liane consults patients referred by GPs, consultants, and dietitians to diagnose and manage food allergies and intolerances.

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.

Graham Roberts qualified in Medicine from the University of Oxford. He completed a 4 year clinical research fellowship in paediatric allergy and respiratory medicine at Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary’s in Professor Gideon Lack’s group. Graham Roberts was awarded a MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He completed his doctoral thesis on the efficacy and safety immunotherapy for childhood allergic asthma. Graham Roberts completed his training in paediatric respiratory medicine at The London Hospital and the Royal Brompton Hospital.

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 currently works as an Allergologist at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, Spain, since 2020. She completed her undergraduate degree in the University of Barcelona and subsequently specialized in Allergology at the University Hospital of Alicante, in 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.

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Dr Chris Rutkowski, MD, PhD, is a consultant allergist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital in London, with clinical and research interests in drug allergy and complex urticaria. Chris established the UK’s largest anti-IgE (omalizumab) service for chronic spontaneous urticaria. He is a member of the expert panel revising the EAACI/GA²LEN/UCARE urticaria and angioedema guidelines and contributes to the EAACI taskforce on paediatric urticaria. Dr Rutkowski collaborates with dermatologists at the UK’s first joint allergy/dermatology urticaria clinic at St John’s Institute of Dermatology. In addition to his clinical work, he is a published author in the fields of drug allergy and urticaria. He is also actively involved in the education and training of MSc students, allergists, dermatologists, GPs, and physicians, both nationally and internationally.

Guy is an allergy consultant at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London. He works in all aspects of adult allergy, including a weekly combined medical-surgical rhinology clinic, combining allergists and ENT surgeons.

Glenis Scadding is an Honorary Consultant Physician, Royal National ENT Hospital, London and Honorary Associate Professor in Division of Immunity and Infection, University College London.

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.

Dr Priya Sellaturay is an esteemed adult allergy consultant at Cambridge University Hospital. She earned her medical degree from University College London and completed her core training in London. Dr Sellaturay pursued her specialist training at Cambridge University Hospital, where she has since developed a keen interest in drug allergy and difficult urticaria. She currently leads the difficult urticaria service in Cambridge.

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 is an experienced paediatric nurse with over 20 years’ experience. She is currently working as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in primary care in Southeast London seeing a wide range of mainly paediatric patients. She has a MSc in Advanced Practice in Child Health and is a Non-medical prescriber. Heathers particular focus and area of interest is working with children and families with atopic conditions.

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.

Isabel has worked at the Royal Brompton & Harefield hospitals for over 40 years. She established an adult food allergy service in 2008 and has been a consultant allergy dietitian since 2014. Her research interests cover many aspects of adult food allergy and she has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and books. She is the current chair of the BSACI standards of care committee and incoming chair of the European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology Food Allergy interest group. Together with others, Isabel has spent the last 20 years developing the dietitian’s role in food allergy through the establishment of allergy dietitian specialist groups in the UK, Europe and the USA. Isabel received the BSACI William Frankland award for services to clinical allergy in 2014 and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Allied Health Professional Recognition Award in 2022.

Professor Helen Smith has dual accreditation in Public Health Medicine and Family Medicine and has worked as a clinical academic in the UK, Canada and Singapore. She has expertise in the design of pragmatic randomised controlled trials and is particularly interested in the evaluation of new technologies in primary care.  Helen enjoys supporting early career researchers and has developed primary care research networks for general practitioners regionally, nationally and internationally.  Her special interest throughout her clinical career has been Allergy, and she has developed many initiatives to promote better management of allergic problems within Family Medicine.

Ronald van Ree is Professor of Molecular and Translational Allergology at the Department of Experimental Immunology and the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location AMC, in 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 Watts is a Consultant Physician in Adult Allergy. His substantive consultant post is based at Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, London, where he leads the drug allergy service. He was appointed Clinical Lead for Allergy at Homerton Healthcare in 2024.

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 Woehlk is a dedicated and professional clinical research scientist with a solid background in translational science, having successfully bridged epidemiological, clinical, and basic science research projects within the fields of allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology. Dr Woehlk focuses on understanding how dysregulated immune mechanisms contribute to proinflammatory responses, exacerbations, and airway infections in respiratory diseases. The goal is to innovate cost-effective, individualized treatment strategies that can prevent disease onset, slow disease progression, and promote remission.

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.