Bronchiectasis 3rd Edition

James D. Chalmers is Rhodes Chair of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Oxford (Oxford, UK) and an active clinician caring for patients with difficult respiratory infections, particularly bronchiectasis.

He trained in Glasgow (UK) and Edinburgh (UK), achieving a PhD in the role of neutrophilic inflammation in bronchiectasis at the MRC Centre for Inflammation Research in Edinburgh. This was followed by a Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship in molecular microbiology at the University of Dundee (Dundee, UK). Alongside Stefano Aliberti and Eva Polverino, he is a founder of the EMBARC registry (the European Multi-centre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration), which has been credited with transforming bronchiectasis from an orphan disease to one with widespread recognition and active research. In 2012, he established an independent research group, which used experimental medicine approaches to study host–pathogen interactions with the aim of developing novel therapies. This work has led to the development of dipeptidyl peptidase-1 inhibition, the first licensed therapy in bronchiectasis.

James has been supported by an exceptional group of colleagues, graduating 15 postgraduate students in the past 10 years. Three group members have won the British Thoracic Society (BTS) Early Career Researcher award (Merete Long, Emma Johnson and Rebecca Hull) and his colleague Amelia Shoemark succeeded him as Asthma and Lung UK Chair of Respiratory Research in 2022. He has received the Patrick Neil Medal from the Royal Society of Edinburgh for outstanding mentoring of early career scientists.

James has published >550 peer reviewed manuscripts, and has chaired major committees and several international guideline panels, including the 2017 and 2025 European Bronchiectasis Guidelines, the 2020 European Guidelines for Inhaled Corticosteroid use in COPD and the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Living Guideline for Management of COVID-19. He was appointed as Deputy Chief Editor of the European Respiratory Journal in 2018 and went on to become Chief Editor in 2022.

Amelia Shoemark is Asthma and Lung UK Chair of Respiratory Research at the University of Dundee (Dundee, UK), where she leads a translational research programme in chronic and rare respiratory disease.

The major focus of Amelia's work is bronchiectasis and mucociliary clearance. Her work links basic biology with clinical outcomes, focusing on understanding disease mechanisms, improving diagnosis, and optimising clinical outcomes in bronchiectasis to improve patient quality of life and develop new therapies. She plays a key role in international collaborations on bronchiectasis and is an active member of the EMBARC registry (European Multi-centre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration) management committee.

Amelia holds a part-time role as senior clinical scientist for diagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia at the Royal Brompton Hospital (London, UK), combining laboratory science with specialist clinical practice. As Chair of the BEAT-PCD European Respiratory Society (ERS) clinical research collaboration and Chair of the joint ERS/American Thoracic Society (ATS) diagnostic guideline committee, she leads the development of international standards in respiratory disease diagnosis and management. Amelia is also an Associate Editor at the European Respiratory Journal.

Stefano Aliberti is Full Professor of Respiratory Diseases at Humanitas University in Milan (Italy) and Chief of the Respiratory Unit at IRCCS Humanitas Research Hospital (Rozzano, Italy). He is an active physician–scientist whose major focus is chronic airway diseases, respiratory infections, bronchiectasis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease.

Stefano trained in Milan and completed clinical and research fellowships in the USA and the UK, with a specific focus on respiratory infections and bronchiectasis. Early in his career, his research addressed the clinical and epidemiological determinants of lower respiratory tract infections, progressively expanding towards host–pathogen interactions, chronic airway infection and precision medicine approaches. Alongside James D. Chalmers and Eva Polverino, Stefano co-founded the EMBARC registry (the European Multi-centre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration), an international initiative that has played a pivotal role in transforming bronchiectasis into a recognised disease area with coordinated international clinical and translational research, as well as large-scale clinical trials.

Stefano established and currently leads a large, multidisciplinary research group integrating clinical epidemiology, translational science and experimental medicine, with the aim of improving disease phenotyping and identifying endotypes and treatable traits in bronchiectasis and other respiratory infections. His work has contributed to the development, testing and implementation of novel therapeutic strategies and to the design of multiple investigator-initiated and industry-sponsored clinical trials. He has mentored a large number of postgraduate students, PhD candidates and clinical fellows, many of whom now hold academic or leadership positions in respiratory medicine across Europe.

Stefano has published >450 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has held leading roles on international guideline panels and scientific committees, including as Chair of the 2025 European Respiratory Society (ERS) guidelines for the management of bronchiectasis, and as a panel member of European guidelines on severe community-acquired pneumonia and the management of COVID-19. He has served on the editorial boards of multiple international journals and is currently Section Editor for respiratory infections at the European Respiratory Journal.