Stefano Aliberti is Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Milan and Respiratory Consultant at the Policlinico University Hospital, Milan, Italy. He received his medical degree from the University of Milan and completed his clinical research training at the University of Louisville, KY, USA, working as member of the Community-Acquired Pneumonia Organization Database. Most of his research over the past fifteen years has been focused on both acute and chronic respiratory infections, and particularly on community-acquired pneumonia, bronchiectasis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). He is former Head of the Respiratory Infections Assembly of the European Respiratory Society, chair of the European Registry of Bronchiectasis (EMBARC), the Italian Registry of Bronchiectasis (IRIDE) and the Italian Registry of pulmonary NTM (IRENE). He leads the Policlinico Bronchiectasis Program which includes a multidisciplinary team of physicians and respiratory physiotherapists taking care bronchiectasis, PCD and NTM patients at the Policlinico Hospital in Milan.

Francesco Blasi, MD, FERS, is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Head of the Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation at the University of Milan, Italy, as well as Head of Cardiothoracic Unit IRCCS Fondazione Cà Granda Ospedale Maggiore Milan.
His research interests include the effects of atypical bacterial infection on cellular immunity in chronic bronchitis, and the role of atypical bacteria and viral infection in asthma onset.
He is also interested in the role of antibiotics in the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations and asthma. He is actively working on pneumonia and tuberculosis research trials.
Professor Blasi has published more than 230 papers in international journals.

Guy Brusselle received his medical degree (M.D.) at Ghent University in 1990. Investigating the functional role of cytokines interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-5 (IL-5) in allergic asthma, he obtained his Ph.D. in 1997. As a respiratory physician with a keen clinical and scientific interest in asthma, severe asthma and COPD, he joined the Ghent University Hospital in 2002. Since 2008, he is professor of medicine at Ghent University, teaching “Study design” and “Immunopathology of airway diseases” to medical and biomedical students, respectively. Since 2015, he teaches the course “Methods and design of clinical studies” to master students in pharmaceutical sciences. Currently, he is head of the Laboratory for Translational Research of Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases at Ghent University. From September 2012 to October 2015, he has served the European Respiratory Society (ERS) as Guidelines Director. Since September 2016, he is the chair of the ERS Science Council. Read More >

Pierre-Régis Burgel is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Paris Descartes University and Cochin Hospital (Paris, France). Pierre-Régis is the National Coordinator of the French Cystic Fibrosis Reference Center Network and does clinical care and research in the field of chronic airway diseases, including cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He is leader of ERN-LUNG cystic fibrosis center at Cochin Hospital and co-leader of the clinical and cell biology research group “acute and chronic pulmonary infection” at Cochin Institute. Pierre-Régis is also scientific secretary of the French national cohort INITIATIVES BPCO, dedicated to the identification of COPD phenotypes. Pierre-Régis is associate editor at the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis and frequent reviewer for major pulmonary journals. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles. Their current project is on clinical phenotypes in COPD and Cystic fibrosis and lung immunology during chronic airway bacterial infection.

Professor G. Walter Canonica is director of the Personalized Medicine Center: Asthma and Allergies at Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan (Italy).
He has been Director of the Allergy & Respiratory Diseases Clinic, Genoa University -Italy a Galen Centre of Excellence (1997-2016)
Since 1995 he is full Professor of Allergy and Respiratory Diseases, Dept of Int Medicine, Genoa University

Professor Canonica’s research interests include examination of the molecular events and interactions between immunocompetent cells, inflammatory cells and epithelial cells in allergic inflammation and airway remodelling.
He has been President of the World Allergy Association (2007-2009) and of the Italian Association for Allergology, Asthma and Immunology (2014-2017).
He personally published more than 230 scientific works on the most relevant and influent specialized journals.

Mario Cazzola is Honorary Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy and Visiting Professor at the Sackler Institute of Pulmonary Pharmacology, GKT School of Biomedical Sciences, London, UK.

He is serving as Editor-in-chief of Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics and as an Associate Editor of Respiratory Medicine and Respiratory Research. He is a Section Head of Respiratory Pharmacology at F1000Prime, and a member of the Editorial Boards of Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Drugs, Respiration, COPD, International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, and npj Primary Care Respiratory Medicine.

Prof. Cazzola is a fellow of the European Respiratory Society. He has received the 2015 European Respiratory Society Lifetime Achievement Assembly Award.

Prof. Stefano Centanni studied medicine at the School of Medicine of the University of Milan, where he received his Medical Doctor Degree in 1979. Following an internship at the pulmonary Division of the McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, in 1981 and a fellowship at the Pulmonary Division of the Mount Sinai Medical Center at the University of Miami, Florida, USA, in 1982, he specialized in Allergology at the University of Medicine of Pavia, Italy, in 1985.
He received a PhD in Pulmonary Diseases in 1998 at the University of Milan Medical School.
From 1990 to 1996 he worked as Assistant Professor of the University of Milan at the Pulmonary Division of the Maggiore Hospital, Milan, and from 1996 to 2005 as Associate Professor at the Pulmonary Division of the San Paolo Hospital, University of Milan. Since 1996 he is Chief of the Pulmonary Division of the San Paolo Hospital, Milan, and in 2005 he became full professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Milan.
Professor Centanni was Italian National Delegate 2007/2009 at the ERS and FERS Italian National Delegate from 2007 until 2012 and President of SIMeR (Italian Society of Respiratory Medicine – 2009/2011). Professor Centanni is author of more than one hundred scientific publications in international journals and several book chapters and books in the field of Respiratory Medicine.

Professor Vincent Cottin is Professor of Respiratory Medicine and coordinator of the National Reference Centre for Rare Pulmonary Diseases at the Louis Pradel Hospital and the Claude Bernard University Lyon 1 in Lyon, France. The center coordinated by Pr Cottin has pioneered the clinical care and research of patients with rare and so-called orphan lung diseases for many years, and has set up a network of 21 expert centres throughout France. The center has recently been recognised as the only center in France to be part of the European Reference Center network for interstitial lung disease (ERN-Lung, ILD).

Professor Cottin’s research interests include rare ‘orphan’ pulmonary diseases, including lymphangiomeiomyomatosis, idiopathic interstitial pneumonias and especially idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. More specifically, he has contributed to characterise and individualise the syndrome of combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema. He is an Investigator and member of the Steering Committee, or Data Safety Monitoring Board, of many clinical trials on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and is conducting personal research on combined pulmonary fibrosis and emphysema.

Professor Cottin has served as elected Head of the Clinical Assembly from 2009 to 2012. He has been Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Review, and is currently Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Journal. He has recently edited a book on orphan lung diseases.

Fabiano Di Marco is Associate Professor of Respiratory Diseases in the Department of Health Sciences of the University of Milan, Italy, and Head of the Respiratory Unit of Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy. He qualified in medicine, and received his degree in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Milan, Italy. In 2006 he was awarded a Long Term Research Fellowship from the European Respiratory Society (ERS) with a research project on the effect of PEEP on membrane and capillary blood components of diffusion capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide in acute lung injury patients at the Intensive Care Unit of Henri Mondor Hospital, Créteil, France, with Prof. Laurent Brochard as host supervisor. He obtained his PhD in Clinical Methodology at the University of Milan in 2008. His primary research interests include lung pathophysiology, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and invasive and non-invasive mechanical ventilation. He has published more than 100 papers in international peer-reviewed journals, and is author or co-author of several book chapters and monographs. He is a member of the Editorial Board of BMC Pulmonary Medicine.

Professor Ratko Djukanovic is Professor of Medicine within Medicine at the University of Southampton. Professor Djukanovic was appointed Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Southampton in 2004 and promoted to Professor of Medicine in 2011. He has held several senior positions at the University of Southampton, including Directorship of the Division of Infection, Inflammation and Immunity and he oversaw the merger of this Division with the Division of Clinical Neurosciences, forming the new Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences.  Professor Djukanovic is the Director of the National Institute for Health Research Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit (NIHR RBRU) (www.uhs.nhs.uk/nihr-bru) and Director of the Southampton Centre for Biomedical Research (SCBR) (www.clinicalresearchinsouthampton.uhs.nhs.uk. He is also Chairman of the Steering Committee of the UK Translational Research Partnership in Inflammatory Respiratory Diseases supported by NIHR (http://www.nocri.nihr.ac.uk/resources/resources).

The Southampton NIHR RBRU unit was one of three Respiratory BRUs founded in 2008, receiving £6.55 million to support a programme of translational research in major respiratory diseases across the life-course. Together with additional funds from the Department of Health, the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Southampton enabled the creation of the SCBR, comprising 4,000 m2 of clinical and laboratory space dedicated to multidisciplinary translational research activities. The SCBR was opened by the Secretary of State for Health and the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies in March 2011. Professor Djukanovic leads the Inflammatory Cell Biology Group, comprising both clinical and non-clinical scientists, including postgraduate students. The group focuses on the role of inflammatory cells (T cells, dendritic cells, macrophages and neutrophils) in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). His team uses (bronchial and parenchymal) lung explant models to investigate inflammatory and remodelling mechanisms caused by allergens and viruses and applies these in proof of concept studies of novel drugs. Professor Djukanovic also heads the severe asthma biomarker discovery programme in Southampton using proteomic and lipidomic methods, largely funded by the U-BIOPRED (UnbiasedBIOmarkers for the Prediction of REspiratoryDisease Outcomes), a €22 million programme funded by the EU Innovative Medicine Initiative (IMI)(http://www.ubiopred.european-lung-foundation.org/). Together with colleagues from the University of Amsterdam (Professor Peter Sterk) and Imperial College London (Professors Fan Chung and Ian Adcock), Professor Djukanovic is co-founder of U-BIOPRED. Professor Djukanovic is an Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Anh Tuan Dinh-Xuan is a French physician, he has got his MD from Paris Descartes University (France) and his PhD in Clinical Sciences from the University of Cambridge (UK). He is currently the Head of the Clinical Physiology Unit of the Thoracic Department of Cochin University Hospital in Paris. His research is focused on the role of nitric oxide in respiratory physiology and pulmonary diseases. He has served as member of the Editorial Board of the European Respiratory Journal, being successively Associate, Joint Chief, Deputy Chief, and Section Editor from 2000 to date.

Stuart Elborn is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College London, and Director of the Adult CF Centre, Royal Brompton Hospital and Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast. His clinical and research interests are in cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis. His research group is focused on identifying new targets and diagnostics, clinical trials and developing better ways to deliver care in cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis.

Andres Floto is Professor of Respiratory Biology at the University of Cambridge, a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator, and Research Director of the Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge.
His research is focused on understanding how immune cells interact with bacteria, how intracellular killing and inflammation are regulated and sometimes subverted during infection, how population-level whole genome sequencing can be used to reveal biology of bacterial infection, and how therapeutic enhancement of cell-autonomous immunity may provide novel strategies to treat multi drug resistant pathogens.
Clinically, he specialises in the treatment of patients with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), non-CF bronchiectasis, and infections with Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM). He is co-chair of the British Thoracic Society NTM guidelines committee, the joint US CF Foundation-European CF Society (ECFS) NTM Guidelines Group and the ECFS working group on NTM.

Enrico Heffler is Specialist in Allergology and Clinical Immunology.

From 2017 he is Associate Professor in Respiratory Diseases at the Humanitas University of Milan (Italy)

From 2014 to 2016 he has been researcher in respiratory diseases at the Catania University Hospital (Italy)

Since 2014 he is general Secretary of the Italian Society of Allergology, Asthma and Clinical Immunology (SIAAIC) and Member of the executive committee.

He has been founder and coordinator of the Junior Member Section of the Italian Society of Allergology, Asthma and Clinical Immunology (SIAAIC)

Since 2013  he is Member of the “Asthma Section board” of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).

Marc Humbert, MD, PhD, is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the South Paris University (Université Paris-Saclay) in Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France. In addition to his academic responsibilities, he is the Director of the National Reference Centre for Pulmonary Hypertension, Department of Respiratory and Intensive Care Medicine, Hospital Bicêtre, Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, France. Along with membership to several scientific councils and institutes, Marc Humbert is the current Director of the INSERM Unit “Pulmonary Hypertension: Pathophysiology and Innovative Therapies” and of the “Thorax Innovation” University Hospital Department. He has been the Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Journal from 2013 to 2017 (impact factor 10.57). He has published widely (over 700 peer-reviewed manuscripts) mostly in the fields of pulmonary hypertension. He is a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS Foundation Fellow) and has received several distinctions including the 1997 François Brenot Award and the 2006 Cournand Lecture Award from the European Respiratory Society, the 2009 Descartes-Huygens Award from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and the 2016 Fondation Eliane and Gérard Pauthier Rare Disease Award of the Fondation de France. Since 2017, Marc Humbert is the vice-coordinator of the European Reference Network for rare and low prevalence respiratory diseases (ERN-LUNG).

Dr. Lopez-Campos is a pulmonologist at the Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Seville, Spain. His clinical activity is focused on the care of patients with COPD and alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency, leading a hospital outpatient clinic. From the academic perspective, he is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Seville and a tutor for residents of Pneumology. His research focuses on the two diseases to which he dedicates his professional work, COPD and alpha1-antitrypsin deficiency. In these fields he has projects and publications in epidemiological, clinical and translational research. He is currently the Head of the research group of the CIBER Consortium for Respiratory Diseases, of the Ministry of Economy of Spain, and co-researcher in charge at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS).

Professor Guy Joos was born in Ostend, Belgium (17.01.1956). He graduated in Medicine from Ghent University in 1980 and was trained in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Medicine at the Ghent University Hospital. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1988, with a thesis entitled “The role of neuropeptides in the pathogenesis of asthma”. He is Full Professor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the Ghent University, Belgium since 1999, Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Ghent University Hospital, since 2004 and Director of Research at the Faculty of Medicine and Health sciences since October 2017.

The main research interest of Prof Joos is translational and clinical research in asthma and COPD. His research is performed in the Translational Lab for Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases and at the clinical department. Prof Joos is author or coauthor of more than 300 articles, of which 220 were published in peer-reviewed international journals. His h-index is 51. Since 1998 he was promotor of 16 PhD theses in the field of translational research in asthma and COPD and has lectured both at national and international meetings on asthma, COPD, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and neuropeptides.

Professor Joos has been president of the Belgian Thoracic Society from 2010-2012 and has served several functions for the European Respiratory Society (ERS): Secretary of the ERS Assembly Airway Diseases, ERS Treasurer and ERS President from september 2016 to september 2017.

Marc Miravitlles is a Pulmonologist at the Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona, Spain. He obtained his MD at the Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain and then specialised in Respiratory Medicine at Hospital Vall d’Hebron. His primary research interests include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency (AAT), lung defence mechanisms and respiratory infections. He serves on various medical committees and is a member of numerous professional societies, including the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR), where he served as Secretary from 1999 until 2003 and responsible for International Relationships from 2006 until 2012. Dr Miravitlles was Chair of the Respiratory Infections Group of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) from 2008 to 2011 and was the Guidelines Director of the ERS from 2015 to 2018. He has acted as a consultant for the development of different international guidelines of COPD, including the American Thoracic Society (ATS)/ERS task force on outcomes in COPD, the ERS/ATS guidelines on exacerbations of COPD and the ERS statement on management of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. He is also a consultant of the Spanish Ministry of Health for the development of the National Strategy Against COPD (2009 to present). He is the coordinator of the Spanish National Guidelines for COPD (GesEPOC from 2012). Dr Miravitlles has published more than 400 articles in peer reviewed journals.

Mario C. Raviglione is professor of Global Health at the University of Milan, Italy, where he is responsible for didactic, research, policy analysis and health promotion in this field. Previously, he was Director of the Global Tuberculosis Programme at WHO in 2003-2017 and worked at WHO since 1991. A graduate from Turin University, Italy, he trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, and AIDS at Cabrini Medical Centre & NY Medical College, New York, and Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. He is one of the 10 most cited authors worldwide in the TB field. His work consists of some 350 publications in journals and books, including the past 8 editions of the Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine and chapters in public health books. His production has been cited more than >42,000 citations and his h-index is 99.

PRESENT POSITION
Full Professor of Radiology (Head of Cardiothoracic Imaging),
Cochin Hospital, Paris Descartes University, Paris, France
Current President of the European Society of Thoracic Imaging

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS
High school diploma (major fields; Math and Physics) 1979
Medical student, Necker-Enfants Malades Faculty of Medecine, Paris 5 University, 1979-1985
Medical Doctor, Necker-Enfants Malades Faculty of Medecine, Paris 5 University, 1989
Master’s Degree in Ethics, Paris 5 University, 1992-1993
PhD in Science Lille 2 University, 2005-2007
Research Supervision Certification Paris Descartes University, 2008

OTHER INFORMATION
Chairman of ESTI (European Society of Thoracic Imaging) annual meeting 2012-2014
Chest sub specialty Chairman for ECR 2016, Vienna, Austria

Luca Richeldi is currently Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome (Italy): he is also Head of the Respiratory Medicine Unit at the Gemelli University Hospital in Rome. Previously and since 2013 he has been Chair of Interstitial Lung Disease at the University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant at University Hospital Southampton in the United Kingdom. Before then he was Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Director of the Centre for Rare Lung Diseases at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Modena, Italy. He graduated from the University of Modena in Italy and obtained his PhD at the University La Sapienza in Rome.

He serves as Associate Editor for the European Respiratory Journal and is a member of the editorial board of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He is also a member of the Clinical Problems Assembly program committee of the American Thoracic Society. He has been part of the panels in charge of the production of the international guidelines on diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and on consensus classification of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonia: these documents have been endorsed by the major international respiratory scientific societies, including the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society. He is member and reviewer of the Cochrane Collaboration, member and chair of the development committee of the Fleischner Society and chair of the international committee of the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. Professor Richeldi has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and contributed several chapters in scientific books.

Nicolas Roche is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Cochin Hospital, University of Paris Descartes, France. His major areas of interest are COPD and asthma with particular focus on inhaled therapy, disease phenotypes, assessment tools, treatment strategies and real-life research.

Professor Roche is a member of the GOLD science committee, President of Société de Pneumologie de Langue Française, co-chair of the 2018 ERS Congress and member of the American Thoracic Society. He is guidelines director elect of the ERS and member of the ERS Clinical Research Collaboration (CRC) working group and ERS Science Council, vice-president of the Respiratory Effectiveness Group and member of the Asthma Drug Management Improvement Team. He coordinates French guidelines on COPD and is a consultant for French institutions for the development of national projects on COPD.

Professor Roche has authored more than 250 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals and edited or co-edited several books on COPD. He is Associate Editor of the European Respiratory Review and the Clinical Respiratory Journal.

Paola Rogliani is Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine at University of Rome Tor Vergata, she is also Head of the Respiratory Medicine Unit at Policlinico Tor Vergata (Rome-Italy).

She graduated in 1994 from University of Rome Tor Vergata, and completed her clinical and research training at the Pulmonary Branch and Laboratory of Molecular Immnulogy at NHLBI, NIH Bethesda (USA). Then in 2000 she returned to Italy at the University of Rome Tor Vergata first as assistant professor and then associate professor.

Her research interests are mainly focused on the role of co-morbidities in bronchial obstructive pulmonary disease both in epidemiological and possible pathogenic mechanisms; as well as preclinical and clinical evaluation of new drugs for the treatment of COPD and asthma. She has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers.

Professor Rogliani serves as Associate Editor for “Pulmonary Pharmacology & Therapeutics” and “BMC Pulmonary Medicine”.

Pierachille Santus is currently Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Milano, Italy and Head of Respiratory Division at “L. Sacco” University Hospital-ASST Fatebenefratelli Sacco Milano, Italy.

He graduated in 1996 at the School of Medicine, University of Milano and participated to the Residence Programme in Respiratory Diseases in the period 1996-2000 at the same University. Prof. Santus obtained his Ph.D on Molecular Biology-Curricula Molecular Oncology at the University of Milano, Italy in 2004. In the 2001, Prof. Santus was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Aintree Chest Centre – University Aintree Hospital NHS, Fazakerly Hospital with Prof. P.M.A. Calverley MD (Liverpool-UK) and during the summer fellow at the Biomedical Engineering Centre of Boston University with Prof. K. Lutchen PhD (Boston-USA).

Prof. Santus work in a clinical setting managing all the acute and chronic respiratory diseases in terms of diagnosis (noninvasive and invasive technics) and therapy (eg noninvasive ventilation, biological and innovative drugs).

He is principal investigator in clinical studies and international RCTs focused on COPD and asthma innovative treatment, and his main research interests are the clinical aspects of COPD and asthma, with special focus on the physiological and pathophysiological modifications that affected the lung mechanics, airways variability of subjects affected by chronic respiratory diseases. However, Prof. Santus have research interest also on the clinical pharmacology in COPD and Asthma, with particular focus on the molecular and pathophysiological modification related to bronchodilators.

Prof. Santus has an excellent experience, as principal investigators, in National and International clinical trials according to Good Clinical Practice. He is heavily engaged in teaching activities for the School of Medicine, Rehabilitation and Extracorporeal Cardiac Technicians in the University of Milano, where he teaches Respiratory Diseases.

He is member of the European Respiratory Society, the Italian Respiratory Society (head of the working group on chronicity and general management of respiratory diseases).

He is author of seventy-two peer-reviewed publications and co-author of several book chapters and monographs. Prof. Santus served as reviewer for many respiratory journals and he is Section Editor (Pulmunology) of the European Journal of Internal Medicine.

Paolo Spagnolo is an Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Padua (Italy). He received his undergraduate training, his MD and his residency in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Bari (Italy). In 2002 Dr Spagnolo joined the Interstitial Lung Disease Unit of the Royal Brompton Hospital (London) as clinical research fellow under the supervision of Professor Ron du Bois and subsequently as Honorary Consultant. In 2008 he completed his PhD at the Imperial College of London under the supervision of Professor Ron du Bois and Professor Ken Welsh, with a thesis on “Genetic predisposition to clinical phenotypes of sarcoidosis”. Between 2010 and 2013 he was lecturer in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Modena where he joined the Center for Rare Lung Diseases lead by Professor Luca Richeldi. Subsequently, he joined the Medical University Clinic of the Canton Hospital Baselland in Liestal (Switzerland) as Senior Clinical Research Fellow. At present, Dr Spagnolo is Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, at the University Hospital of Padua. His main research interests include sarcoidosis and interstitial lung disease, with emphasis on genetic predisposition, prediction of disease behaviour and clinical trials of novel therapies. Dr Spagnolo is the author or co-author of approximately 100 journal articles, review articles, editorials and book chapters.

J .Christian Virchow, MD, FRCP, FCCP, FAAAAI, is a Professor of Medicine and Pneumology and Head of the Departments of Pulmonary Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine in the University Medical Clinic at the University of Rostock, Germany. He is also the Medical Director of the Pulmonary Diagnostic Services and the Sleep Laboratory of the University of Rostock. He is Editor-in-Chief of RESPIRATORY MEDICINE and Visiting Professor of the China-Japan-friendship hospital in Beijing, PR China. He is a member of several medical organizations, including the American Thoracic Society, the European Respiratory Society, and the American College of Chest Physicians. Dr. Virchow serves as Associate Editor for several German journals in pulmonology and allergology and has served as an ad hoc reviewer for Chest, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, the European Respiratory Journal and many others. He is the author or coauthor of more than 200 peer reviewed articles for journals such as JAMA, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Chest, and European Respiratory Journal and author of several chapters for text books. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Tübingen, Germany after attending Medical School in Marburg and Giessen, Germany and Zürich, Switzerland. Dr. Virchow completed his residency in internal medicine at University Medical Clinic in Freiburg, Germany, and his fellowship in pulmonary medicine at the Department of Pneumology at the University of Freiburg, Germany under Prof. H. Matthys. His special interests are research into the mechanisms of inflammation in chronic obstructive lung diseases such as asthma and COPD as well as the treatment of these conditions.

Professor Tobias Welte is the Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Carl-Neuberg-Str. 1, 30625 Hannover.
1978 -1985: Study of human medicine, Hannover Medical School
1985 – 88/90: Department of Internal Medicine, County Hospital Lehrte
1989: Residentialship, Massuchusetts General Hospital Boston, USA
1990-1994: Fellow, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School
1992: Specialist for Internal Medicine
1994: Specialist for Respiratory Medicine
1994: MD
1995: Specialist Intensive Care Medicine
2000: Habilitation for “Internal Medicine”
2002: Specialist for Infectious Disease Academic Appointments:
1994 – 2004 : Head of the Division of Respiratory Medicine and Intensive Care, University of Magdeburg
2003: Appointment C3 Professorship for Respiratory Medicine University of Magdeburg, not accepted
since 2004: W3-Professorship, Head of the Department of Respiratory Medicine, Hannover Medical School
2015: Appointment Professorship for Pneumology, University of Vienna, not accepted Other (selected) Professional Activities:
1994 – today: Project leader in more than thirty research projects funded by DFG, BMBF and EU
Since 2001: Co-ordinating board of BMBF-competence networks PROGRESS, ASCONET and CAPNETZ as well as Chairman of CAPNETZ Foundation
2007-2011: Speaker of the BMBF funded Clinical Study Center Hannover (KS-MHH)
since 2011: Member of the board of directors of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL) and director of the Hannover DZL site BREATH (Biomedical Research in Endstage and Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover)
since 2011: Member of the Internal Advisory Board of the German Center of Infectious Disease Research (DZIF)
2008-2010: President of the German Society of Medical Intensive Care Medicine
2009-2015: Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Monograph
since 2008: Member, since 2012 Spokesman of DFG-Fachkollegium “Inflammation”
2009-2013: President of the German Sepsis Society
2012-2014 President of German Society of Pneumology
Additional Information: 2014 Appointment as Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (FERS)

Prof. Welte is currently ERS President (2018-2019)