Peter Openshaw (immunologist)

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Peter Openshaw

Born (1954-11-11) 11 November 1954 (age 69)
Alma mater Guy's Hospital
Scientific career
Fields Immunology
Institutions Imperial College London
Thesis Benefit and harm from immunity to respiratory syncytial virus  (1988)

Peter John Morland Openshaw, CBE , FRCP , FMedSci (born 11 November 1954) is a British clinician and scientist specialising in lung immunology, particularly defence against viral infections. He trained in lung diseases and undertook a PhD in immunology before establishing a laboratory at St Mary's Hospital Medical School (later part of Imperial College London). He created the academic department of Respiratory Medicine and the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College and was elected President of the British Society for Immunology in 2014.

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Early life

Openshaw was born in 1954 in Glastonbury, Somerset. He attended Millfield Junior School, then the Quaker boarding schools Sidcot School and Bootham School, followed by Guy's Hospital Medical School (University of London). He earned an intercalated BSc in Physiology (Hons., 1976), qualified in medicine (MB BS, 1979), and worked at the Royal Brompton Hospital and as medical registrar at Royal Postgraduate Medical School (Hammersmith Hospital).

Career

Immunological work

Originally trained in lung mechanics, his PhD at the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill, London was in T cell immunology. [1] He has worked on protective and harmful immunological reactions to viruses, inflammatory lung disease and vaccine development since 1985, writing over 300 scientific articles (h-index= 101). [2] He was President of the British Society for Immunology between 2013 and 2018, the first clinician to hold the role. Openshaw was a member of the Academy of Medical Sciences and British Society for Immunology expert taskforce on COVID-19. [3]

Respiratory virus research

He was awarded the Chanock prize (2012, Santa Fe USA) in recognition of his lifetime achievement in work on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) research. He has been involved in influenza policy since 2002 as a member of UK advisory boards and was Vice President of European Scientific Working Group on Influenza (ESWI) from 2009-2014. In 2009 he set up the MOSAIC consortium, a collaboration of 45 co-investigators studying the host response to influenza in patients admitted to 11 hospitals in London and Liverpool (Wellcome Trust/MRC support) and directs studies of viral challenge of human volunteers.

He was Theme Lead for the Respiratory Theme and later the Infection Theme of the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre. Currently he works as Head of the Respiratory Infections Section at the National Heart and Lung Institute, a department of Imperial College London. [3]

Academic leadership

Openshaw established the academic department of Respiratory Medicine on the St Mary’s Campus of Imperial College and created the Centre for Respiratory Infection (Wellcome Trust funded). He has sat on numerous governmental, grant awarding and international committees.

He was elected an Imperial College Consul for the Faculty of Medicine in 2016, becoming Senior Consul in 2019 [4] and then Proconsul [5] . He co-chaired Imperial's Working Together Task Group in 2021. [6]

Advisory

Openshaw is a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) in the UK. [7]

Honours

Openshaw is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (1994), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999) and a Fellow of the Society of Biology (2014). [8] He was selected as Senior Investigator by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in 2013 and 2020. [9] [10]

Openshaw was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to medicine and immunology. [11]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Respiratory syncytial virus</span> Species of a virus

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), also called human respiratory syncytial virus (hRSV) and human orthopneumovirus, is a contagious virus that causes infections of the respiratory tract. It is a negative-sense, single-stranded RNA virus. Its name is derived from the large cells known as syncytia that form when infected cells fuse.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhinorrhea</span> Filling of the nasal cavity with fluid mucus

Rhinorrhea, rhinorrhoea, or informally runny nose is the free discharge of a thin mucus fluid from the nose; it is a common condition. It is a common symptom of allergies or certain viral infections, such as the common cold or COVID-19. It can be a side effect of crying, exposure to cold temperatures, cocaine abuse, or drug withdrawal, such as from methadone or other opioids. Treatment for rhinorrhea may be aimed at reducing symptoms or treating underlying causes. Rhinorrhea usually resolves without intervention, but may require treatment by a doctor if symptoms last more than 10 days or if symptoms are the result of foreign bodies in the nose.

Pneumococcal pneumonia is a type of bacterial pneumonia that is caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus). It is the most common bacterial pneumonia found in adults, the most common type of community-acquired pneumonia, and one of the common types of pneumococcal infection. The estimated number of Americans with pneumococcal pneumonia is 900,000 annually, with almost 400,000 cases hospitalized and fatalities accounting for 5-7% of these cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Respiratory tract infection</span> Infectious disease affecting nose, throat and lungs

Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) are infectious diseases involving the lower or upper respiratory tract. An infection of this type usually is further classified as an upper respiratory tract infection or a lower respiratory tract infection. Lower respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, tend to be far more severe than upper respiratory infections, such as the common cold.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mucosal immunology</span> Field of study

Mucosal immunology is the study of immune system responses that occur at mucosal membranes of the intestines, the urogenital tract, and the respiratory system. The mucous membranes are in constant contact with microorganisms, food, and inhaled antigens. In healthy states, the mucosal immune system protects the organism against infectious pathogens and maintains a tolerance towards non-harmful commensal microbes and benign environmental substances. Disruption of this balance between tolerance and deprivation of pathogens can lead to pathological conditions such as food allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, susceptibility to infections, and more.

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Tissue-resident memory T cells or TRM cells represent a subset of a long-lived memory T cells that occupies epithelial, mucosal and other tissues without recirculating. TRM cells are transcriptionally, phenotypically and functionally distinct from central memory (TCM) and effector memory (TEM) T cells which recirculate between blood, the T cell zones of secondary lymphoid organ, lymph and nonlymphoid tissues. Moreover, TRM cells themself represent a diverse populations because of the specializations for the resident tissues. The main role of TRM cells is to provide superior protection against infection in extralymphoid tissues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew McMichael</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">COVID-19</span> Contagious disease caused by SARS-CoV-2

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.

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A respiratory syncytial virus vaccine, or RSV vaccine, is a vaccine that protects against respiratory syncytial virus. RSV affects an estimated 64 million people and causes 160,000 deaths worldwide each year.

Rosemary Jane Boyton is a British immunologist who is Head of Lung Immunology and Adult Infectious Disease at Imperial College London. She works on the molecular immunology of infectious, allergic and autoimmune inflammation. She holds an honorary consultant position at the Royal Brompton Hospital, where she specialises in lung infection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmission of COVID-19</span> Mechanisms that spread coronavirus disease 2019

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References

  1. "Future Virology Editorial Board". Future Virology. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  2. "Peter Openshaw". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  3. 1 2 "Peter Openshaw". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  4. "Professor Peter Openshaw elected as Senior Consul at Imperial". Imperial News. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  5. "Knighthoods for Chief Medical Officers in COVID Dominated New Year Honours". Medscape UK. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  6. "Working Together Task Group". Imperial College London. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  7. "New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group". GOV.UK. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  8. "Honours and Memberships - Peter Openshaw - Professor of Experimental Medicine". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  9. Openshaw, Peter (4 October 2017). "Vaccines are vital: there's never been a more exciting time to be a vaccinologist!". Imperial Medicine Blog. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  10. "NIHR Senior Investigator awards for Imperial". NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
  11. "No. 63571". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 2022. p. N10.