Kevin K. Brown is a Professor and Vice Chairman in the Department of Medicine at National Jewish Health. He has had a long-standing interest in the clinical and biologic aspects of diffuse lung disease and has directed National Jewish’s Interstitial Lung Disease Program for over a decade. Dr. Brown has leadership positions in a number of national and international pulmonary organizations, and serves on the steering and protocol development committees of multiple national and international multi-centered treatment trials in diffuse lung disease. Named as one of the nation’s top physicians for a decade, he has an active clinical practice as well as an NIH-funded translational research program focused on the development, progression, and control of fibrosing lung diseases.
Nik Hirani is the Clinical Director of Respiratory Medicine at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Principal Investigator at University of Edinburgh, MRC Centre for Inflammation Research. He leads a large Interstitial Lung Disease service and chaired the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) IPF guideline group. His research is focused on the natural history of fibrotic lung diseases, basic mechanisms for lung fibrosis and imaging inflammation. He is actively engaged in IPF clinical trials.
Patricia Sime is a Professor and Chief of Department of Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care at University of Rochester Medical Center. Her research interest is focused on lung fibrosis and inflammation and the complex relationship between the immune system, pulmonary cells and the extracellular matrix of the diseased lung. Professor Sime holds an MD from University of Edinburgh and has trained in clinical medicine and research in Scotland, Canada and the US.
Seamas Donnelly is a Professor at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland, where he is also Medical Director of the Clinical Research Centre. He is an international leader in translational medicine and his research interests have focused on defining key drivers of acute and chronic inflammation and translating these observations in particular to respiratory diseases with special emphasis on lung fibrosis. His work epitomises classical bench-to-bedside work, where identified clinical problems are addressed at the bench and via in vitro and in vivo models brought back to the clinical interface for the benefit of individual patients. He is currently a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Principal Investigator Programme Grant Holder and has obtained significant funding from the Wellcome Trust, European Union and international charitable funding agencies.
Tariq Sethi is a founder of Galecto, and currently Chief Physician Scientist at Astra Zeneca, and Emeritus Professor at Kings College London. Tariq was previously Head of Respiratory Medicine Kings Health Partners / Kings College London and was Professor of Respiratory and Lung Cancer Biology at the University of Edinburgh.
He was educated at Cambridge and London Universities followed by junior hospital jobs in London. He gained a PhD at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund London and was subsequently appointed lecturer in Medicine at Edinburgh University. As an MRC Travelling Fellow, he worked at the Scripps Research Insitute California, returning to Edinburgh as a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Leave Fellow.
His research interests are on the interaction between inflammation and lung cancer, focusing on the regulation of proliferation and apoptosis by growth factor and integrin mediated signalling. He is an author of numerous scientific papers and has edited books on lung cancer.
Toby Maher is British Lung Foundation Chair in Respiratory Research and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinician Scientist. He is Professor of Interstitial Lung Disease and heads up the Fibrosis Research Group at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London. He is also Director of Respiratory Research, NIHR Respiratory CRF Director and Consultant Respiratory Physician at Royal Brompton Hospital. Prof Maher qualified from Southampton Medical School. He trained in Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Prof Maher has a subspecialty and research interest in interstitial lung diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and also manages pulmonary fibrosis and lung disease associated with connective tissue disease and chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis. Prof Maher is the lead consultant for clinical trials in the Royal Brompton Interstitial Lung Disease Unit. He is currently Global Chief investigator for a number of commercial studies of novel compounds being tested in trials for IPF and other interstitial lung diseases.
Galecto, Inc. develops small molecules for the treatment of severe diseases, including fibrosis and cancer. The company, founded in 2011, builds on more than 10 years of research centering on the role of galectin-3 and LOXL-2, and the use of modulators of these proteins to treat fibrosis-related diseases and cancer. Combined with a strong patent estate, these assets give Galecto a unique therapeutic platform.