Adult Cystic Fibrosis Conference

Francesco Blasi, MD, PhD, FERS is Professor of Respiratory Medicine Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation at the University of Milan, Italy, as well as Head of Internal Medicine Department and Respiratory Unit of the Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy. He is also director of the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center of the Lombardia Regional Referral CF Center and currently a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Milan.

From 2012–2013, he was president of European Respiratory Society and from 2016–2017 president of the Italian Respiratory Society. From 2019 he is vice-president of the Italian Society of Cystic Fibrosis.

He has published more than 450 papers in international journals [h-index (July 2022) WEB of Science: 65; SCOPUS: 60].

His research interests include pneumonia, COPD, bronchiectasis, tuberculosis and NTM infections, cystic fibrosis and lung transplantation.

Affiliations:

Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Internal Medicine Department, Respiratory Unit and Cystic Fibrosis Adult Center,Milan, Italy; and Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.

Stuart Elborn is Professor of Medicine and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences at Queen’s University and a visiting Professor at Imperial College London. His research areas are in cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis. His clinical and research interests are focused on identifying new targets and diagnostics for infection and inflammation in lung disease, developing better therapies for people with cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis and the use of digital platforms and artificial intelligence in healthcare delivery. In 2013 he received a CBE for services to Healthcare.

Dr. Eva Polverino is a pulmonologist expert in respiratory infections. She is the Senior Researcher at the Vall D’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) in Barcelona, Spain. As part of ERS, she is now serving her three-year-long mandate as secretary of the Respiratory Infections Assembly. Concurrently, she is also an Associate Editor for two ERS Journals, the ERR and Breathe. In the past, she was first the Secretary and then the Chair of the Group 10.1 on Respiratory infections.
Dr. Polverino graduated from the medical School of the Second University of Naples (SUN) in 1999, and she obtained her doctorate from the University of Pisa in 2002. She also holds a Master’s degree in the management of Clinical Units from the University of Murcia.

Silke van Koningsbruggen-Rietschel is a Pediatric Pulmonologist and Head of the CF Clinical Research Center at the CF Centre Cologne, University Hospital of Cologne, Germany. She has been a specialist in Pediatric Pulmonology, Allergology and CF since 1995 and has been principal or lead principal investigator in numerous industry-sponsored clinical trials as well as investigator-initiated trials in the field of CF for more than 25 years. Dr. van Koningsbruggen-Rietschel has been a founding member of the European Cystic Fibrosis Society Clinical Trial Network (ECFS-CTN), sits on the Protocol Review Committee as well as in the Investigator Trial Committee of the ECFS-CTN. 2018 she became Director of the ECFS-CTN for a 3-year term and also a Board Member of the ECFS. She is a member of the Global Advisory Group on CF Clinical Drug Development and a Member of the ECFS Strategic Planning Task Force on Speeding up the access to new treatments in CF. Besides being a member of various Steering Comittees for clinical trials she is also a member of the Steering Committee to plan the scientific programme of the ECFS Conferences. She was an awardee of several grants, e.g. HORIZON2020 project in CF. Areas of research interests are novel therapies for CF, clinical trial designs, outcome measures for clinical trials, pathogenesis of CF-Lung Disease (role of genetic modifiers, airway inflammation, remodelling) and organoid models.

Clémence Martin is an assistant professor in respiratory medicine and a member of the adult cystic fibrosis centre, and is in charge of a 10-bed hospital unit in the respiratory medicine department of the Cochin Hospital in Paris, France. She has expertise in the field of cystic fibrosis (CF), non-CF bronchiectasis and COPD. She is implicated in clinical research as principal investigator or co-investigator of many clinical studies in the field of CF and non-CF bronchiectasis, and is in charge of the relationship with the clinical trial centre of Cochin Hospital (Pr. I. Fajac) for patient selection and follow-up. She is active in biological research as a member of the team “Acute and chronic pulmonary infections”, Institut Cochin UMR 1016 and responsible of the murine model of persistent airway infection with P. aeruginosa and S. aureus.

Appointment to W2 Heisenberg Professorship for Translational Pediatric Pulmonology (funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG)) at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (expected to start in September 2022)
Head of the Division of Cystic Fibrosis (CF) at the Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Immunology and Critical Care Medicine of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Consultant Physician (Oberärztin) at the Department of Pediatric Respiratory Medicine, Immunology and Critical Care Medicine of the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
Group Leader of the Research Group „Risk Factors and Therapy of Early CF Lung Disease“
Associated Principal Investigator of the German Center for Lung Research (Deutsches Zentrum für Lungenforschung, DZL)

Dr Arietta Spinou is a Lecturer in Cardiorespiratory Physiotherapy Practice and Research at King’s College London, UK. She has extensive clinical expertise and was a Specialist Respiratory Physiotherapist in the NHS, where she treated people with cystic fibrosis and other chronic respiratory conditions. Dr Spinou has developed a new and short questionnaire for patients with bronchiectasis, the Bronchiectasis Health Questionnaire (BHQ), and her main research interests include cough and airway clearance. Currently, Dr Spinou leads the ERS Task Force for the airway clearance techniques in bronchiectasis and is a member of the British Thoracic Society Pulmonary Infection Advisory Group.

Mr Smith has been specialising in cystic fibrosis nutritional care and management for 15 years. He co-chaired the European Cystic Fibrosis Society (ECFS) Nutrition group between 2014-2019. He is one of the founders and current directors of the ECFS pre conference nutrition program. Mr Smith joined the ECFS education committee in 2018 and this year began a new role as Director of Education. He sits on the ECFS board.
Mr Smith also works with CFEurope charity on education projects across Eastern Europe.
Chris works at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in the UK and is an invited lecturer for the Universities of Surrey and The University of Sussex.