Meet The Teams

Royal Brompton Hospital – London

  • MD – Co-PI

    Jane Davies

    Jane is a Professor in Paediatric Respirology & Experimental Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. She co-leads the site at the European CF Society Clinical Trials Network and has personal research programmes in infection, lung physiology and imaging.

  • Radiologist

    Thomas Semple

    Thomas is a cardiothoracic imaging specialist with expertise in the imaging of heart and lung conditions in neonates, infants, children and adults. Thomas has a range of expertise in heart and lung procedures and services including Childhood Interstitial Lung Disease (ChILD) and MRI imaging of lung disease. His research interests include paediatric lung imaging (including structural and functional lung MRI).

  • European Clinical Trails Network, LCI Core Facility Manager

    Clare Saunders

    After graduating with a BSc Physiology in 2000 Clare trained in adult lung function testing before working within several London hospitals gaining experience in paediatric CF clinical and research respiratory measurements, including the multiple breath washout technique. In 2006 Clare joined Imperial College and the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust as the lead respiratory physiologist working on clinical trials for the UK CF Gene therapy consortium. She now leads the European Lung Clearance Index facility providing training, certification and central over-reading in the multiple breath washout technique using the Exhalyzer D system.

  • Senior Respiratory Physiologist

    Chris Short

    Chris graduated in 2014 and joined the team in 2015 to meet the demands of the increasing workload. He is now the primary over reader and trainer in multiple breath washout using the Exhalyzer D system. He is currently investigating a new method of measuring MBW as well as looking at the CoV of FRC. Chris’ other research interests are in the non-invasive detection of pseudomonas.

  • Respiratory Physiologist and Clinical Research Coordinator

    Mary Abkir

    Mary trained in Paediatric Respiratory/Sleep Physiology at Great Ormond Street Hospital as part of the Practitioner Training Programme (PTP) and graduated with a degree in Clinical Physiology in 2019. She joined the LCI Core Facility team in 2020 and is the lead coordinator for RECOVER at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Her other duties include: performing multiple breath washout (MBW) tests for clinical trials, analysing MBW data and providing training & certification to clinical sites across Europe.

  • Respiratory research physiologist

    Sophie Pinnell

    Sophie graduated from a Biomedical Science degree at King’s College London in 2018. Afterwards, she completed the Scientist Training Programme (STP) to become a respiratory and sleep physiologist. She is the newest member of the LCI Core facility team where her duties include analysing multiple breath washout (MBW) tests, conducting study visits and training new operators in MBW.

Meet The Teams

  • Belfast City Hospital

  • Children’s Health Ireland – Crumlin

  • Children’s Health Ireland – Tallaght

  • Children’s Health Ireland – Temple Street

  • Core Study Team

  • Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Kids

  • Royal Brompton Hospital – London

  • University Hospital Limerick