Speakers

Professor Warwick Britton,

Professor Britton is the Bosch Professor of Medicine and Professor of Immunology at the University of Sydney and Head of the Mycobacterial Research Program at the Centenary Institute where he studies the immunological control of tuberculosis, the regulation of host responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis and new vaccine strategies to control this major human infection. After working in Nepal as a physician, Professor Britton completed a PhD on the immunology of leprosy, and then set up a field research laboratory in Nepal. His driving interest is to apply modern immunology and biotechnology to improve the control of tuberculosis and leprosy, and health care in low income countries.

Invited Speakers

Professor Stephen Holgate, University of Southampton, UK
	Stephen Holgate is Medical Research Council Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton, UK. His clinical and research interests are in the mechanisms and treatment of asthma and allied disorders. This has spanned epidemiology, immunology, pharmacology, experimental medicine and genetics. Notable contributions have been in defining inflammatory and remodelling processes in asthma as they relate to different clinical phenotypes, identification of ADAM33 as the first novel asthma susceptibility gene and the mechanisms of acute exacerbations and the use of novel biologicals in therapy. On a broader front I chair the Population and Systems Medicine Board of the MRC and am a member of the MRC's Strategy Board and the UK Government's Translational Medicine Board. I have a particular interest in promoting Respiratory and Allergy Research, in increasing the translation of scientific discovery into patient benefit and the impact of the environment on human health.
Professor Kalpalatha (Kay) Guntupalli, Houston, USA
	Kalpalatha K. Guntupalli, MD, FCCP, is a Professor and Chief, Pulmonary/Critical Care and Sleep Section, at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. She completed her internal medicine residency at DC General Hospital and pulmonary and critical care fellowships at Georgetown University and the University of Pittsburgh, respectively. She served on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh and Emory University prior to joining Baylor in 1988. Dr Guntupalli has served ACCP in many capacities, including Regent-at-Large; Chair of the Critical Care Institute; Chair of Women's Health NetWork; member of the CHEST Program Committee; and trustee of The CHEST Foundation, and is currently ACCP President-Elect. She serves as The CHEST Foundation's Second Distinguished Scholar in Critical Care Medicine. Her academic interests include ARDS and critical care education tools. She has developed anti-tobacco education material in seven languages and anti-tobacco cartoons for children in three languages, inspiring more than 200,000 children. Dr Guntupalli believes in fostering a culture of a "global family" of health caregivers to deliver the best of care to all patients and make meaningful contributions to society.
Professor Jeff Whitsett, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA
	Jeffrey A. Whitsett is chief of the Section of Neonatology, Perinatal and Pulmonary Biology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Columbia University, in New York, and has been a faculty member since 1977. He is internationally known for his research in pulmonary medicine, as well as for his clinical expertise in neonatology. He has made a series of groundbreaking contributions in pulmonary medicine. His major pioneering work has been on surfactant proteins A, B, C, and D, cloning their genes, and clarifying their roles in lung development. He has had the remarkable ability to move from molecular biology, to animal models, to diagnosis and therapy of human disease. He played a critical role in making surfactant protein replacement a routine tool for treating immature lungs and respiratory distress syndrome in premature infants. His laboratory has contributed to the identification of a number of genes critical for lung formation and function. Mutations in genes regulating surfactant homeostasis were shown to cause acute and chronic lung disease in infants and adults. He is the author of over 400 papers in both the basic science and clinical literature, a member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and is the recipient of the Mead Johnson Award, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Merit Award.