Stephen Townley Holgate - Biography#

Stephen Holgate is Medical Research Council Clinical Professor of Immunopharmacology at the Faculty of Medicine, Southampton, UK. After completing his medical training in London he spent 2 years at Harvard Medical School to acquire skills in allergic disease mechanisms. On returning to Southampton in 1980, he set up a research group focused on the mechanisms of asthma. He has utilized many approaches to study this disease including epidemiology, genetics, pathology, microbiology and immunology, pharmacology and experimental medicine. This research has informed guidelines on asthma management and has identified and validated novel therapeutic targets. Notable research contributions include the role of mast cells and their mediators in asthma and allied disorders, the regulation and pharmacology of mast cells, placing inflammation at the core of asthma pathophysiology, uncovering the role of respiratory viruses, allergens and pollutants in asthma exacerbation, the discovery of defects in innate immune responses in asthmatic airways, mechanisms of airway wall remodelling and the discovery of novel asthma susceptibility genes such as ADAM33.

His current research focuses on stratified medicine, the role of the epithelium in orchestrating asthma and the evolution of asthma across the lifecourse. His work has resulted in over 980 peer reviewed publications (H index 133), 60 Book editorships, 453 Book Chapters and Reviews, 48 Editorials, 76 Official and Government Reports. He holds an MRC programme grant focused on the pathogenesis of asthma.

He is a Past President of the British Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and British Thoracic Society, was Chair of the MRC Population and Systems Medicine Board (PSMB). Stephen is Chair of Main Panel A (Medicine, Health and Life Sciences) of the UK Research Excellence Framework 2014, Chairs the UK National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), the British Lung Foundation Research Committee, the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC), and from 2014, will join the Science and Innovation Strategy Board of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). He is Chair of the European Respiratory Society Scientific Committee, Treasurer of the World Allergy Organization and Member of the Medical Science Committee of Science Europe. In 2003 he cofounded Synairgen, a publically quoted respiratory drug development company with a particular focus on lung antiviral defence in asthma, COPD and severe viral infections.