Peter Barnes

Department of Thoracic Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine, United Kingdom

Peter Barnes is Professor of Thoracic Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Head of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College and Honorary Consultant Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital, London.

He is a leading expert on asthma and was one of the first to recognise the role of chronic inflammation in asthma and the importance of early treatment with inhaled steroids. This has since become standard clinical practice. He has also conducted research into the mechanisms of inflammation in asthma, and more recently, COPD. One of his major achievements has been to understand the molecular basis for the anti-inflammatory effects of corticosteroids. This has given important insights into the inflammatory mechanisms of asthma and why corticosteroids are not effective in patients with COPD. Professor Barnes is also involved in a number of translational studies investigating airway diseases, including asthma and COPD, the molecular mechanisms of inflammation in airway disease and the effects of current and future therapies. In addition, the development of biomarkers for assessment of asthma and COPD are of particular interest.

Professor Barnes is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the British Thoracic Society and a member of the Royal College of Physicians. He is Chairman of the National Asthma Campaign Taskforce on Asthma and of the Academic Board of the National Heart and Lung Institute. He is also a member of the scientific committee for the WHO/NIH GINA Guidelines for Asthma and COPD. Professor Barnes was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2007. He is an editorial board member of over 30 scientific journals. He is Editor of Chest, Journal of COPD, Respiratory Research and Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Any competing interests declared are displayed with individual evaluations.

Head of Faculty: Respiratory Disorders (since 16 November 2005)

Peter Barnes is a Head of Faculty for the RESPIRATORY DISORDERS Faculty. The role of a Head of Faculty is to help divide the Faculty (specialty) into Sections (sub-specialty areas), nominate leaders in those areas as Section Heads, and offer ongoing advice on the strategic direction of the service. They are not asked to evaluate articles, although we do, of course, welcome them.

Links

http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/p.j.barnes.html