Primary Job Title Professor - Experimental Medicine Primary Organization Imperial College London
Location London, England, United Kingdom Regions Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Gender Male
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Peter Openshaw is Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College London and an Honorary Physician in the Department of Respiratory Medicine at the St Mary's Campus of the Imperial College NHS Trust.
Peter was appointed as an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2013 and became President of the British Society for Immunology in 2014, the
first clinician to lead the organisation.
Peter trained at Guy's Hospital, the Brompton and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (Hammersmith). Peter's Ph.D. training (with Ita Askonas FRS at the National Institute for Medical Research, 1985-1988) led to a Wellcome Senior Fellowship and the creation of the Academic Department of Respiratory Medicine at St Mary's.
The department now has three professors (Peter Openshaw, Sebastian Johnston and Ajit Lalvani) and over 100 members of staff. It was completely refurbished in 2002-2003 (JIF award). Peter was the Principal Applicant on a strategic award for a Centre in Respiratory Infection (Wellcome Trust, £3.4m, 2008-2010).
Peter's research is on the immunology of the lung, viral lung disease, vaccination and immunopathogenesis of viral disease. Peter was among the first 100 elected Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999) and served on Wellcome Trust's Clinical Interest Group (1997-2003), Infection and Immunity (2002-2004) and the Tropical and Clinical Panels (2006-2008) and the Immunology and Infectious Diseases panel (2008-2010). He has served on many other national and international grant bodies. Peter became a Member of British Society for Immunology's Council in 2006 and a Member of the Department of Health's Scientific Advisory Group on Pandemic Influenza in December 2007. In 2009 Peter was invited by the Department of Health to become a member of the Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies (SAGE), chaired by the Chief Government Scientist, which advised the UK Government on pandemic influenza. He became a member of NERVTAG in 2015.
In May 2009, Peter convened a UK-wide consortium of research groups to study hospitalised patients with H1N1/09 infection, Mechanisms of Severe Accute Influenza Consortium (MOSAIC). This involved 45 co-investigators in 8 cities, focusing on a comprehensive investigation of hospitalised patients with influenza.He was Vice President of the European Scientific Working group on Influenza (ESWI) for 5 years, a member of ISARIC and a co-applicant on the EU FP7 PREPARE grant. Peter has a Sattelite affiliation with the Frances Crick Institute, London.
Peter received the Chanock Award in 2012 for lifetime contribution to RSV research in Santa Fe, New Mexico and delivered the Croonian lecture at the Royal College of Physicians in February 2013 on the topic of influenza pandemics.
