1 Chair of Respiratory Medicine (Clinical)

Chair of Respiratory Medicine (Clinical) National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine Title of Post: Chair of Respiratory Medicine (Clinical) Department: National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) Main site of activity: St Mary’s and South Kensington Campus Responsible to: Head of NHLI, Professor Edwin Chilvers Accountable to: Head of Inflammation, Repair & Development Section, Professor Sejal Saglani, or Airways Disease Section, Professor Sebastian Johnston Salary range: £82,096 - £110,683 per annum (dependent on seniority within the national clinical salary scales), plus £2,162 per annum London Allowance Job Family / Level: Clinical Academic; Full time (40 hours per week), open ended 1. Background to the Post In line with NHLI’s Strategic Research Plan (2019-2024) and the desire of Imperial College to consolidate its respiratory science into a newly refurbished building located alongside our existing Cardiology and Vascular Laboratories on the Hammersmith and White City Campuses, we now wish to appoint a world-leading clinical scientist to a Chair of Respiratory Medicine. The focus of the Chair will be to advance our ongoing research programme in experimental medicine in airways diseases. Imperial College London (ICL) is in an outstanding position to combine exceptional clinical expertise with innovative science to drive forward precision medicine in airways diseases. Current Imperial College NHLI’s research programmes range from population heath and epidemiology, early-life cohorts of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), occupational asthma, to translational expertise in severe asthma investigating molecular mechanisms with multi-omics analyses and encompass both paediatric and adult chronic airways disease. Biologics and precision medicine have become the cornerstone of treatment of severe asthma and COPD in adults over the last 10 years, this is expanding exponentially, and novel therapeutics are delineated from phase I and II clinical studies with mechanism built in. NHLI has an established programme of in vivo airway challenge studies in adults, with bronchoscopic studies being the cornerstone of its fundamental research. The main aims of the post will be to lead and establish clinical links and strengthen and integrate research within the severe asthma and COPD service of the Imperial AHSC (Academic Health Science Centre), build up an experimental/translational medicine programme including patients with chronic airways diseases, develop strong collaborative and interdisciplinary links with the National 1 Phenome Centre to advance research in systems medicine, and Faculty of Engineering to advance AI (Artificial Intelligence) with imaging and biomarkers for precision medicine. The postholder will be expected to lead on each of these areas. In addition, the postholder will be expected to lead on the development of a Strategic Centre for Precision Medicine in Airways disease, spanning experimental medicine (including airway challenge studies), biomarker discovery, AI/Data Sciences and systems medicine. 2. Institutional background National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLI) The NHLI is one of the largest departments within the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. The College is a world top-ten University and the UK’s leading STEMM (Science- Technology-Engineering-Maths-Medicine) University. It was top ranked in Respiratory Medicine and Cardiovascular Sciences in the UK Government’s latest ‘Research Excellence Framework’ (REF) exercise. The NHLI has over 100 Principal Investigators (138 individuals returned in the REF2021 exercise) and is committed to developing new treatments and cures for heart, lung and vascular diseases. Over 20 of its staff are Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. This group of diseases continue to kill 1 in 2 people in the UK and worldwide. Its scientists hold over £170M in active grants and the Department hosts a number of UK Centres of Excellence including an Asthma-UK Centre, BHF Centre for Research Excellence, BHF Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine Centre and the National Centre for Mesothelioma Research as well as three Cystic Fibrosis Trust Strategic Research Centres and the Asmarley Centre for Genomic Medicine. Its staff also lead several the Colleges’ cross-faculty Networks and Centres of Excellence and play a major role in Undergraduate teaching of Medical and Biomedical Students. The NHLI runs 5 taught-course MSc Programmes: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/study/postgraduate-taught/ and has over 100 MSc students and 180 registered PhD students: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/nhli/study/postgraduate-research/ . NHLI is divided into two divisions with four sections each and a cardiorespiratory interface section: Cardiovascular Division Heads: Professor Justin Mason and Professor Jane Mitchell • Cardiovascular Trials and Epidemiology • Vascular Science • Cardiac Function • Genetics and Imaging • Cardiorespiratory interface Respiratory Division Heads: Professor Wisia Wedzicha and Professor Clare Lloyd • Airways Disease • Inflammation, Repair and Development • Respiratory Infections • Genomic and Environmental Medicine Staffing and Size of NHLI NHLI comprises 9 research sections, as listed above, and has over 100 academic staff. These include approximately 55 research-active professors and encompass the areas of respiratory and cardiovascular science and medicine. The Institute enjoys an annual turnover of about £56 million 2 and has a staff complement of over 450, including both basic and clinical researchers. NHLI is based on five main sites, at the Brompton, St Mary’s, Hammersmith, South Kensington and Harefield campuses. The Institute has close links with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT), the Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital, now part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust (GSTT), and Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust (CW). The ICHT and CW are members of the recently renewed Imperial Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), which holds a major NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. Research Activities in NHLI NHLI is a major department within Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine and is a leading international research centre for investigating the mechanisms underlying many chronic diseases affecting the cardiovascular and respiratory systems such as asthma, cystic fibrosis and interstitial lung disease. There is a broad spectrum of research from the bench to the bedside to the community within the Institute. As a research centre, NHLI’s main aim is to carry out research, development and education in heart and lung science. The Institute produces in excess of 500 peer-reviewed publications each year. NHLI receives around £30-35m of new grant awards each year, which includes peer reviewed awards from charities and research councils, as well as research contracts with industry. NHLI academics lead and form a major part of the Cardiovascular Theme of the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre and the new Respiratory Theme being submitted in 2021. NHLI was highly rated in terms of both quality and number of researchers in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), with researchers mainly contributing to Unit of Assessment 1 (Clinical Medicine), where Imperial was ranked third by percentage of 4* staff, fourth by grade point average (GPA) and second by research power. NHLI currently holds an Athena Swan Bronze Award and has a thriving Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programme and a high number of female academic staff. Teaching Activities in NHLI NHLI is responsible for teaching a major part of the undergraduate and clinical curriculum to medical students at Imperial. We lead two intercalated BSc programmes in Cardiovascular and Respiratory Sciences and are responsible for respiratory and cardiovascular elements of the School of Medicine medical degrees. The department’s expanding postgraduate portfolio currently contains five MSc degrees. NHLI also hosts streams of the Faculty of Medicine MRes in Biomedical Research. The Institute offers suitably qualified scientists and clinicians opportunities to study for doctoral degrees (PhD or MD(Res)). Its current postgraduate research numbers average 180 enrolled research students and fellows who undertake clinical and basic academic research carried out throughout NHLI’s campuses and locations. The successful applicant will be expected to contribute to the teaching activities of the Institute. Relationship with other departments, Faculties and the NHS Trust Clinical Divisions The post holder will have close links with other sections and divisions within NHLI. He or she will be expected to form collaborations with colleagues in other departments and Institutes. Imperial actively fosters links across the Faculty of Medicine, Faculties of Engineering and Natural Sciences, the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the Imperial Centre for Translational and Experimental Medicine (ICTEM). 3 3. The Faculty of Medicine The Faculty of Medicine is one of Europe’s largest medical institutions in terms of its staff and student population and its research income. It was established in 1997, bringing together major West London medical schools into one world-class institution. It maintains close links with a number of NHS Trusts with whom it collaborates in teaching and research activities. Although on several sites, its academic departments function as one Faculty, fully integrated within the College. The Faculty is spread across several West London campuses, including South Kensington and the following hospital

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