Dr Jane C Davies

Jane Davies is a Reader in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine & Gene Therapy at the National Heart and Lung Institute and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. 

Dr Davies graduated MB ChB from the University of Dundee Medical School in 1987 and undertook clinical training in Paediatrics in London. A post at the Royal Brompton Hospital led to an interest in cystic fibrosis (CF), particularly host-pathogen interactions and her MD, under the supervision of Andy Bush and Eric Alton, focussed on the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lung. Her clinical training was subsequently completed at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the departments of Respiratory Medicine and Infectious Diseases/ Immunology .She returned to the NHLI in 1999, initially as Senior Lecturer and more recently, Reader. She is based in the Dept of Gene Therapy, led by Professor Eric Alton, with whom she collaborates closely.

Dr Davies remains engaged in translational research in the field of CF. She is the clinical lead and Strategy Group member of the UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium; this Consortium was established in 2002 from 3 groups in the UK with CF gene therapy clinical trials experience (Imperial College/ Royal Brompton Hospital, Oxford University and Edinburgh University). The aim is to develop clinically relevant CFTR gene therapy. She is heavily involved in clinical trial design and the validation of outcome measures such as lung clearance index and sputum inflammatory markers. On the consortium trials she conducts the bronchoscopic assays and leads on the electrophysiological measurements (potential difference) both in the nose and lower airway. She currently manages a group of trial co-ordinator, research nurses and respiratory physiologists, clinical fellow and a consortium-funded PhD student.

She has other streams of research focussed on CF disease pathogenesis; together with Professor Andrew Bush, she has been engaged for several years in a programme of opportunistic bronchoscopic research, using bronchoalveolar lavage and endobronchial biopsies to define inflammatory and remodelling changes at various stages of childhood airways disease; she is currently supervising her 3^rdpost-graduate student in this area. As part of an interest in non-invasive measurements of airway disease, she has internal collaborations on projects including cyanogenesis in pseudomonas, bronchial blood flow measurements and pathogen-derived volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath. The Chronic Suppurative Lung Disease (CSLD) Consortium of the Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit, of which she is a member, has a strong emphasis on microbiology, in particular novel molecular detection tools.

She works closely with Dr Diana Bilton, the Adult CF clinical lead, on a number of commercially-sponsored clinical trials in CF, largely involving novel small-molecules directed at CFTR function such asVX-770 (Vertex) and Ataluran (PTC), for both of which she is Principal Investigator. She has recently become involved with the Medicines for Children Research Network, sits on their Respiratory and CF Clinical Studies Group and is their ‘Research Champion’ for the Royal Brompton site. She supervises an MCRN-funded research nurse who works on Network-adopted trials.

Together with Professor Alton, she has a strong interest in the use of nasal potential difference in the diagnosis of atypical CF and runs a clinic which accepts referrals from throughout  the UK. She has trained colleagues from many other centres in this technique and is part of the European Diagnostic Network and the European Committee for Standardisation of Outcome Measures. 

Until its recent closure, Dr Davies was an expert member of the Royal Brompton, Harefield and NHLI Research Ethics Committee. She has co-edited 3 textbooks and contributed chapters to many others.  She teaches regularly, both on Imperial College courses and externally. She has delivered Plenary Lectures at European Cystic Fibrosis Conferences and is a regular invited speaker at respiratory and paediatric meetings, both national and international.