Current Respiratory Medicine Reviews

Dr. Joseph Varon is the Chief of Critical Care Services at the Foundation Surgical Hospital and past Chief of Staff at the University General Hospital at Houston. He is a professor of acute and continuing care at the University of Texas, Houston, and a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He also serves as a professor of medicine, surgery, and emergency medicine at several universities. Dr. Varon is board-certified in internal medicine, critical care, pulmonary diseases, and geriatrics, with additional qualifications in emergency medicine and sleep disorders. As an avid researcher, he has contributed numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, full-text books, and book chapters. He co-described the hyponatremia associated with extreme exercise syndrome, also known as "Varon-Ayus Syndrome". Dr. Varon has lectured in various countries around the world.

Dr. Salim Surani completed his fellowship in pulmonology at Baylor College of Medicine and earned a master's in public health from Yale University. He has contributed extensively to medical literature, authoring numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and writing books and book chapters. Dr. Surani has served as an independent grant reviewer for governmental agencies and is an associate editor for the Current Respiratory Medicine Review. He has been a speaker at various regional, national, and international scientific conferences and has participated in committees for several national organizations.

Dr. Veronica Filetti is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Catania. She is involved in new diagnostic strategy and biomarker discovery using innovative approaches as bioinformatics tools and the droplet digital PCR in biological matrices or by subjects exposed to different xenobiotics both at an environmental and occupational level. In addition, she uses the histological and immunohistochemical approaches for the evaluation of new biomarkers related to various diseases, especially cancer. She is involved in epidemiological studies and cellular and molecular toxicology.

Dr. Michael I. Lewis is a Professor of Medicine and pulmonary and critical care specialist at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. He is currently the medical director of the Respiratory Therapy Department and executive chair of the IRB at Cedars. He has been involved in pulmonary hypertension (PH) since coming to Cedars Sinai in 1987. He was formally a program director of the pulmonary/critical care Fellowship program and director of the Respiratory ICU for 20 years.

Dr. Vito Terlizzi is a Pediatric Medical Doctor at Meyer Pediatric Hospital, where he works full-time at the Cystic Fibrosis Center. He has coordinated multicentric studies on the correlation between genotype and phenotype in cystic fibrosis and has conducted scientific research on issues related to cystic fibrosis, such as neonatal screening and CFTR modulator drugs. Dr. Terlizzi has authored numerous publications in the field.

Dr. Sy Duong-Quy graduated with PhD of Sciences in Physiopathology of Respiratory System from Paris Est University in 2009 and post-PhD Research in Paris Descartes University after his PhD of Sciences. He was also Physician of Respiratory Diseases and Lung Functional Testing in Haut Lévêque Hospital – Bordeaux (2001-2002 and 2003-2004) and Cochin Hospital – Paris (2005-2017). Dr. Duong-Quy Sy is now Director of Lam Dong Medical College and Medical-Biological Research Center. He is Professor at the Penn State University, College of Medicine since February 2016. Dr. Duong-Quy Sy is also a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Allergy-Immunology of Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania – USA. Dr. Duong-Quy Sy has experience in basic science and clinical research in the field of airway inflammation and allergy, childhood asthma, exhaled nitric oxide measurement, COPD, lung fibrosis, sleep apnea in children and adult, and pulmonary hypertension. He has published more than 100 manuscripts in prestigious international peer review journals and international conferences. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Functional Ventilation and Pulmonology.

Dr. Andrea Aliverti is a full professor of Bioengineering at the Politecnico of Milano University, Italy, in the Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering. He is the Chairman of the Ph.D. Programme in Bioengineering and is responsible for Lares, the Respiratory Analysis Lab at the Biomedical Technology Laboratory. His main research interests include the bioengineering of the respiratory system, physiological measurements, biomedical instrumentation and sensors, and lung imaging. He has contributed extensively to scientific literature, authored book chapters, edited books, and holds multiple patents. He is also actively involved in professional organizations, serving as Secretary of the Clinical Physiology, Sleep and Pulmonary Circulation Assembly, a member of the ERS Education Council, and Chairman of the ERS Task Force on functional evaluation of lung and airways.

Dr. Demosthenes Bouros is a graduate of the Medical School of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Athens. He has been a research fellow at Harvard University in Boston, a Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University, a Senior Research Associate at the Royal Brompton Hospital, and an ERS Visiting Professor at the Medical University of Vienna. Currently, he is a Professor of Pneumonology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. He has contributed extensively to medical literature, authored book chapters, and serves on the editorial boards of multiple medical journals. He is an elected foundation member of the Fellows of the European Respiratory Society and has played a key role in the development of various clinical guidelines. His main research interests focus on the pathogenetic mechanisms and treatment of interstitial lung diseases.

Dr. Arnold R. Brody, Ph. D. currently is Professor Emeritus in the Pathology Department at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. He received a Ph.D. in Cell Biology at Colo. St. Univ. Following three years of post-doc at Ohio St. Univ. he was an Assist. Prof. in the Pathology Dept. at the Univer. of VT. After 15 years at the Nat. Inst. of Env. Hlth. Sci., Dr. Brody was a full professor in the Pathol. Dept. at Tulane. He was the Vice Chairman of the Dept. from 1999 to 2006. After 5 years in the Dept. of Molec. Biomed. Sci. at NC St. Univ., he retired and was honored with Emeritus status at Tulane in 2012. Dr. Brody has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and 55 invited reviews, most of which deal with the fundamental mechanisms through which inhaled asbestos causes disease.

Dr. Francesco Dispenza is Professor of Otorhinolaryngology at University of Palermo Hospital, Italy.His field of expertise are nose and paranasal sinuses pathology and surgery, ear surgery and otoneurology.He attended more than 100 international conferences and published more than 100 articles in international journals.

Dr. Christian Domingo completed his Residency in Pulmonary Medicine from 1986-1989 in the HGTiP of Badalona (Barcelona). He also trained at the Cardio-Pulmonary Transplantation Unit of the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, and l’Unité de Soins Intensifs in Lyon, France. He earned a doctorate in Medicine from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and holds a Master in Health Economy from Pompeu Fabra University. Currently, he serves as Senior Consultant of Pulmonary Medicine at Corporació Parc Taulí in Sabadell, Barcelona, and as Professor of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Dr. Domingo has authored numerous scientific papers and supervises doctoral thesis for pulmonologists, internists, and pediatricians. He was the founding Editor of The Open Respiratory Medicine Journal and remains its Editor-in-Chief.

Dr. Ali El-Solh is a Professor of Medicine and Anesthesiology at the State University of New York at Buffalo and serves as the Director of Research at the VA Western New York Healthcare System. He holds a Master’s in Public Health in Health Administration from the Medical College of Wisconsin. His contributions to medical research include numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals, abstracts, and book chapters. He also holds multiple patents related to the screening and diagnosis of sleep disorders.

Dr. Hiroaki Kume obtained MD from Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in 1982 and completed PhD in Respiratory Medicine at Nagoya University School of Medicine in 1990. Currently based at Kindai University Faculty of Medicine (Osakasayama, Osaka Prefecture, Japan), he focuses on investigating the characteristics of beta2-adrenergic and muscarinic receptors in airway smooth muscle using physiological methods, and the characteristics of inflammation in the airways, with the goal of identifying therapeutic molecular targets for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Dr. Chiara Lazzeri qualifications include Degree in Medicine from University of Florence (1988), a degree in Internal Medicine from University of Florence (1993), a degree in Cardiology from University of Florence (1999), and a degree in Anesthesiology and Intensive Care from University of Pisa (2008). Since 1999, she has been working in the Azienda Ospedaliero- Universitaria Careggi (currently in the Intensive Care Unit and Regional ECMO Referral center). Dr. Lazzeri has numerous publications and honors to her credit.

Dr. Caterina Ledda (MSc, Ph.D.) works at Clinical pathology and Clinical molecular biology Laboratory at Garibaldi Hospital of Catania (Italy). During her Ph.D., she developed an interest in Naturally Occurring Asbestos (NOA). Her main interest lies in the mechanisms underpinning the development of thoracic disease and its comorbidities. Dr. Leda is passionate about understanding the modulation of key pathophysiological pathways (that have been proved to be deleterious for health with particular focus on the molecular mechanisms underlying the effect of external agents on respiratory systems).

Dr. Carlos M. Luna, is a Professor of Pulmonary Medicine and Internal Medicine, at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Luna is the Director of the Postgraduate Training Program (fellowship in Pulmonary Medicine) at the Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and the head of the Pulmonary Diseases Division, Department of Internal Medicine at the Hospital de Clínicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires. His basic, clinical, and epidemiological research interest is the diagnosis, therapy, and prevention of respiratory tract infections, particularly community-acquired pneumonia and nosocomial pneumonia/ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Dr. John M. Madison is Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine and Professor of Medicine and Microbiology and Physiological Systems at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He received his medical training at Harvard Medical School, Washington University, and UCSF. During his 26 years at the University of Massachusetts he has devoted his career to NIH-funded basic research, teaching, and clinical care. His main research interest has been calcium signaling in airway smooth muscle and his main clinical interests have included asthma, COPD, and the diagnosis and management of chronic cough. He has contributed extensively to medical literature, including publications, reviews, and chapters. He has also served on editorial boards and is a section editor for major textbooks.

Dr. Padukudru A. Mahesh is currently a Professor and Head of the Department of Chest and Tuberculosis, J.S.S. Medical College, Mysore. He did MBBS degree from Kasturba Medical College, University of Mangalore, India in 1992. Dr. Mahesh has numerous honors, awards and publications to his credit.

Dr. Mauro Maniscalco is the director of the pulmonary rehabilitation unit and the head of the research laboratory on “Inflammation of Airways” at the Research Institute ICS Maugeri of Telese (Italy). He was a fellow-research at Papworth and Addenbrooke’s Hospitals of Cambridge (UK), completing his Ph.D. from the Department of Pharmacology at Karolinska Institute of Stockholm. At the moment, he is carrying out research on the characterization of biomolecular markers in exhaled breath condensate (EBC) of patients with respiratory disorders. In particular, he is characterizing the metabolomic phenotypes in patients with asthma, COPD, cystic fibrosis, and obesity.

Dr. Fernando A.L. Marson is researcher from Unicamp acting in the multidisciplinary research group of Asthma and Cystic Fibrosis, being one of the responsible by Medical Genetics studies, including the studies of Asthma prevalence and severity, and in Cystic Fibrosis, with studies on CFTR mutations screening, cystic fibrosis diagnosis and clinical modulation by modifier genes. He is responsible for the statistical analysis of (i) modifier genes and severity of respiratory diseases, (ii) methods/tools for Cystic Fibrosis diagnosis, (iii) epidemiological analysis regarding respiratory diseases, (iv) risk factor for cancer, (v) bacterial modulation on the clinical severity of Cystic Fibrosis, (vi) and in the use of Multifactor Dimensionality Reduction tool. In total, more than eighty papers were published in the area of genetics and respiratory diseases in the last four years. Actually, he acts as a biostatistician in the Brazilian Study Groups for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease and Medical Genetics Group led by Professor Carmen Silvia Bertuzzo and Professor José Dirceu Ribeiro, respectively.

Dr. Brooke T. Mossman is a University Distinguished Professor of Pathology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. She has studied the development of lung and pleural diseases associated with inhalation of toxic minerals for approximately 40 years. She has authored more than 300 papers, monographs and book chapters on her research.

Dr. Antonello Nicolini received a Medical Degree from the University of Genoa. He is board-certified in pulmonary diseases and respiratory pathophysiology and rehabilitation. He is currently Director of the Respiratory Diseases Unit at the Hospital of Sestri Levante, Italy, and Professor of Pulmonology at Physiotherapy and Physical Medicine, University of Genoa. Dr. Nicolini serves as Secretary of the Study Group of Intensive Care at the Italian Society of Pulmonology (ISP). He has contributed extensively to peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is a reviewer for multiple international journals in the field of respiratory diseases.

Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte is currently Professor Ȧ Chair of Pediatrics of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He also serves as Chairman of the Cleveland Clinic Pediatric Institute, Physician-in-Chief of the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital, and President of the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation in Ohio. He is responsible for all clinical, financial, academic, operational, professional and strategic issues pertaining one of the largest service lines in the Cleveland Clinic enterprise, including more than 365 physicians and 1,200 nurses, with annual gross revenues in excess of $1 billion and operating budget of $284M.

Dr. Shanmuga Raju is the Associate Professor and In-Charge Head of the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences, Karimnagar, India. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences. He has contributed extensively to peer-reviewed journals, authored multiple books and book chapters, and is an editorial board member of the American Journal of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Clinical Medicine, and the American Journal of Sports Science & Medicine.

Dr. Bernhard Ryffel is MD, Ph.D., graduated in Basel, and was appointed Professor at the University of Cape Town and is now director of research in Immunology at CNRS in Orleans, France with a vibrant research team. His field of research is Immunology and pulmonary inflammation and infection; His expertise is in Innate immune sensing of pathogens and danger signals, inflammasome activation, the role of IL-1 and IL-1 family members especially IL-33, Th17, and Th22 differentiation, the role of aryl hydrocarbon receptor, the role of microbiota on tissue homeostasis and inflammation, obesity and diabetes. He is an editorial board member of PLOS One, Molecular Biology, Med Microbiol Immunity, World Journal Immunology, Am J Clin Exp Imm, Int J Exp Pathology. He has a number of scientific publications in major scientific journals.

Dr. Russell W. Steele graduated with honors from Tulane University School of Medicine and was elected to the AOA Honor Medical Society. He completed a fellowship in infectious diseases and immunology at Georgetown and the NIH. He has been a faculty member at medical schools in Hawaii, the University of Texas in San Antonio, Arkansas, LSU, Tulane, and the University of Queensland. He has received multiple awards for excellence in teaching, including a Lifetime Contribution to Education Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics. His contributions to pediatric infectious diseases include numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books. He serves as the editor of Clinical Pediatrics, Global Pediatric Health, and the pediatric infectious section of E-Medicine (MedScape) and has been a member of the Red Book committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. Minoru Takeuchi is interested in pulmonary immunology, toxicology, nanomedicine, immunology, immuno-pharmacology and immuno-pathology. M.Takeuchi has authored more than 100 articles and book chapters on the immunological effects of tobacco smoke including nanoparticles, pulmonary disease, natural product and cancer. He is a leading expert in tobacco smoke research, pulmonary disease, immune effect of natural product and cancer immune therapy. M.Takeuchi leads an active research program in tobacco smoke including nanoparticles with funding from national. He is a senior research professor supervising much useful research to undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD students. M.Takeuchi and his fellow researchers are conducting further research in the field of pulmonary immunology, toxicology and nanomedicine.

Prof. Antoni Torres is a full professor of Medicine (Pulmonology) at the University of Barcelona and has served as Director and Chief of the Pulmonology Department and Director of the Respiratory Intensive Care Unit at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. He leads a translational research group focused on respiratory infections, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and critical care. Prof. Torres completed a research fellowship at Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, where his studies on post-thoracotomy muscular function and mechanical ventilation earned the Edward Shanoff Award. He has authored over 1,250 publications with more than 70,000 citations and an H-index of 123, and his research is widely cited in international clinical guidelines. Prof. Torres has received multiple awards, including the Josep Trueta Award, Lilly Award, COMB Award, ICREA Academia Award, Murray Korndfel Award, and in 2024, the ERS Lifetime Achievement Award in Respiratory Infections. He also serves as associate editor and editor-in-chief for leading journals in respiratory and critical care medicine.

Dr. Peter A. Ward is the Godfrey D. Stobbe Professor of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received B.S. and M.D. degrees and completed a residency in Anatomic Pathology, all from the University of Michigan. He became Professor and then Chair of the Department of Pathology, University of Connecticut Health Center, thereafter becoming Chair of the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical Center (1980-2005). His research programs have long focused on the relationship between the complement system and the inflammatory system, indicating that complement plays a key role in enhancing biological responses, and the interactions between the complement activation product, C5a, a powerful proinflammatory peptide that reacts with its receptors (C5aR1, C5aR2) on a variety of cells, especially phagocytes (neutrophils and macrophages). Dr. Ward has authored over 700 scientific publications on his research. His most current studies relate to determining how C5a disrupts [Ca2+]i homeostasis in cardiomyocytes.

Dr. Divakar Sharma is a biotechnologist recognized for his research in microbial proteomics, particularly in tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, with a focus on drug-resistant and drug-induced studies. He is currently affiliated with Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, and holds multiple academic degrees, including an M.Sc. in Biotechnology from C.S.J.M. University, India, and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology from Jiwaji University, India. His research has significant clinical relevance, contributing to the development of diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines against drug-resistant tuberculosis and other infectious diseases. He has made numerous scientific contributions to journals of international repute.

Dr. Sezer Ulukaya received a B.Sc. degree in Electronics Engineering from Ankara University, Turkey and an M.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bahçeşehir University, Turkey in 2008 and 2011, respectively. He is currently a post-doc member in the Lung Acoustics Laboratory(LAL) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department at Boğaziçi University, Turkey where he got a Ph.D. degree in 2017 in the same department. His Ph.D. thesis is about Time-Frequency and TimeScale Analysis, Decomposition, and Classification of Adventitious Pulmonary Sounds. His research interests are in signal processing, machine learning, and pattern recognition with applications to facial biometrics and pulmonary sounds.