Peter Openshaw is Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London and an Honorary Physician in the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the St Mary's Campus of the Imperial College NHS Trust. He was appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2013 and became President of the British Society for Immunology in 2014, the first clinician to lead the organisation. 

Peter trained at Guy's Hospital, the Brompton and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (Hammersmith).  His PhD training (with Ita Askonas FRS at the National Institute for Medical Research, 1985-1988) led to a Wellcome Senior Fellowship and the creation of the Academic Department of Respiratory Medicine at St Mary's.  The department now has three professors (Peter Openshaw, Sebastian Johnston and Ajit Lalvani) and over 100 members of staff.  It was completely refurbished in 2002-2003 (JIF award).  He was the Principal Applicant on a strategic award for a Centre in Respiratory Infection (Wellcome Trust, £3.4m, 2008-2010).

His research is on the immunology of the lung, viral lung disease, vaccination and immunopathogenesis of viral disease.  He was among the first 100 elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), and served on Wellcome Trust's Clinical Interest Group (1997-2003), Infection and Immunity (2002-2004) and the Tropical and Clinical Panels (2006-2008) and the Immunology and Infectious Diseases panel (2008-2010). He has served on many other national and international grant bodies.  He became a member of British Society for Immunology's Council in 2006 and a member of the Department of Health's Scientific Advisory Group on Pandemic Influenza in December 2007. In 2009 Peter was invited by the Department of Health to become a member of the Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies (SAGE), chaired by the Chief Government Scientist, which advised the UK Government on pandemic influenza. He became vice-Chair of NERVTAG in 2015.

In May 2009, he convened a UK-wide consortium of research groups to study hospitalised patients with H1N1/09 infection, Mechanisms of Severe Accute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC). This involved 45 co-investigators in 8 cities, focusing on a comprehensive investigation of hospitalised patients with influenza.He was Vice President of the European Scientific Working group on Influenza (ESWI) for 5 years, a member of ISARIC and a co-applicant on the EU FP7 PREPARE grant. He has a Sattelite affiliation with the Frances Crick Institute, London and is an NIHR Senior Investigator.  

He received the Chanock Award in 2012 for lifetime contribution to RSV research in Santa Fe, New Mexico and delivered the Croonian lecture at the Royal College of Physicians in February 2013 on the topic of influenza pandemics.

• SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Schnoeller C, Roux X, Sawant D, et al., 2014, Attenuated Bordetella pertussis Vaccine Protects against Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease via an IL-17-Dependent Mechanism, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol:189, ISSN:1073-449X, Pages:194-202

Dodd JS, Clark D, Muir R, et al., 2013, Endogenous IL-21 regulates pathogenic mucosal CD4 T-cell responses during enhanced RSV disease in mice, Mucosal Immunology, Vol:6, ISSN:1933-0219, Pages:704-717   

Tregoning JS, Wang BL, McDonald JU, et al., 2013, Neonatal antibody responses are attenuated by interferon-gamma produced by NK and T cells during RSV infection, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol:110, ISSN:0027-8424, Pages:5576-5581

Hansel TT, Johnston SL, Openshaw PJ, 2013, Microbes and mucosal immune responses in asthma, The Lancet, Vol:381, ISSN:0140-6736, Pages:861-873

Loebbermann J, Durant L, Thornton H, et al., 2013, Defective immunoregulation in RSV vaccine-augmented viral lung disease restored by selective chemoattraction of regulatory T cells, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol:110, ISSN:0027-8424, Pages:2987-2992

Everitt AR, Clare S, Pertel T, et al., 2012, IFITM3 restricts the morbidity and mortality associated with influenza., Nature, Vol:484, Pages:519-523

Loebbermann J, Thornton H, Durant L, et al., 2012, Regulatory T cells expressing granzyme B play a critical role in controlling lung inflammation during acute viral infection, Mucosal Immunology, Vol:5, ISSN:1933-0219, Pages:161-172

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