ERS Fellowship Recipients 2018-2019

ERS is committed to promoting excellence in research and providing development opportunities for bright and committed researchers working in respiratory medicine.

To achieve this, we offer several fellowship opportunities throughout the year to support researchers in their work and to enable international collaborations. Find out more about ERS fellowships.

Long-Term Research Fellowships 

  • Aino Rantala (Finland to Norway)
    'Novel aspects of an old problem: The use of various methodological approaches and data to elucidate the effect of pre- and postnatal exposures, including infections, use of antibiotics and vaccination, on asthma'
  • Charalampos Pierrakos (Belgium to Netherlands)
    'Effects of positive end–expiratory pressure strategy on cardiac performance in patients without ARDS'
  • Charalambos Michaeloudes (United Kingdom to Cyprus)
    'Mitochondrial movement in airway smooth muscle cells in response to oxidative stress and inflammation'
  • Amany Elbehairy (Egypt to United Kingdom)
    'Exercise cardiovascular abnormalities in smokers with no or mild airway obstruction: implication for exertional dyspnoea'
  • Yonghua Gao (China to United Kingdom)
    'Molecular characterisation of exacerbations of bronchiectasis'

Co-funded Long-Term Research Fellowships

  • ALAT Joint Fellowship - Augusto Varese (Argentina to United Kingdom)
    'The role of type I interferons in the generation and maintenance of lung resident T cells'
  • DZL Joint Fellowship - Sebastiano Emanuele Torrisi (Italy to Germany)
    'Assessment of performance of TORVAN model in predicting survival in patients with rheumatoid arthritis related interstitial lung disease and chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis'
  • SPLF Joint Fellowship - Eva Delbrel (France to United Kingdom)
    'Endoplasmic reticulum stress: implication in cellular senescence in copd patients'
  • SEPAR Joint Fellowship - Konda Babu Kurakula (Netherlands to Spain)
    'Peptidyl-prolyl cis/trans isomerase NIMA-interacting protein 1 (Pin1): a therapeutic target for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH)'

Short-Term Research Fellowship [October 2018 round]

  • Serena Bingling Xu (China to United Kingdom)
    'Effect of glucocorticoids on mitochondrial and glycolytic gene expression in airway smooth muscle cells of patients with severe or non-severe asthma'
  • Stephanie Thompson (United Kingdom to Canada)
    'Plasma cfDNA methylation: a tool for asthma stratification and proxy assessment of lung damage/activation'
  • Tom Schepens (Belgium to Canada)
    'Building expertise in work of breathing in ventilated patients and measuring its effects on the diaphragm and lungs'
  • Oliver Price (United Kingdom to Denmark)
    'Evaluating the diagnostic utility of audio-recordings in patients with exertional breathlessness'
  • Valentina Mercurio (Italy to United States)
    'Risk assessment and risk category changes over time in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension'
  • Aino Rantala (Finland to Norway)
    'Causal pathways from maternal infections and use of antibiotics during pregnancy to the asthma in offspring'
  • Ana Filipa Marques Rego Machado (Portugal to Belgium)
    'Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: establishing the differences between hospitalised patients and those managed in the community'
  • Flavia Greiffo (Germany to United States)
    'ADAM10-dependent fractalkine shedding recruits pro-fibrotic monocytes in bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis mouse model'

Co-funded Short-Term Research Fellowships [October 2018 round]

  • SPLF Joint Fellowship - Bregtje C.M. Hermans (Netherlands to France)
    'Deeper insight into the cell(s) of origin and development of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) by evaluating combined large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) – adenocarcinoma'
  • SEPAR Joint Fellowship - Cristina Prat Aymerich (Spain to Netherlands)
    'Zooming into research challenges in respiratory tract infections'

Short-Term Research Fellowships [April 2018 round]

  • Nicklas Brustad (Denmark to United States)
    'Prevention of childhood asthma with high-dose vitamin D supplementation: Effect modification by vitamin D pathway genetics'
  • Jonathan Baker (United Kingdom to United States)
    'Does defective iron metabolism drive cellular senescence in COPD? Developing methodology to assess this relationship'
  • Elly Marcq (Belgium to Australia)
    'Unraveling the effect of voluntary exercise on treatment outcome and tolerance in a mesothelioma mouse model'
  • Masafumi Fukumitsu (Japan to Netherlands)
    'Impact of shear stress on cell proliferation in pulmonary arterial hypertension patients'
  • Diana Marangu (Kenya to Switzerland)
    'Establishing a paediatric chronic respiratory disease registry in Kenya'
  • Katharina Jandl (Austria to Netherlands)
    'Endostatin as a modulator of right ventricular dysfunction in pulmonary arterial hypertension'
  • Salih Gencer (Turkey to United States)
    'TßRI/II signaling in Primary Cilia Mediates Lung Metastasis'
  • Annelies Robijn (Australia to Sweden)
    'Use of the swedish medical birth register and a novel sibling design to investigate the relationship between asthma exacerbations in pregnancy and adverse perinatal outcomes including gestational diabetes, pregnancy-induced hypertension, low birth weight, preterm delivery, small for gestational age, stillbirth and neonatal mortality'
  • Maarten Keeners (United Kingdom to Australia)
    'Why does cigarette smoke promote kidney pathology?'
  • Wojciech Langwiński (Poland to Sweden)
    'In situ analysis of miRNA expression in an ex vivo human lung tissue model of asthma'
  • Athina Trachalaki (Greece to United Kingdom)
    'Lung microbiome and cytokine production capacity in fibrotic ILDs: A proof of concept study'
  • Susan Fitzpatrick (Ireland to France)
    'Defining the mechanisms of Intermittent hypoxia-induced adipose tissue inflammation will lead to the identification of novel therapeutic approaches in obstructive sleep apnoea'

RESPIRE3 Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowships [third round]

  • Olivier Burgy (United States of America to France)
    'Extracellular vesicle-linked heat shock proteins as new targets in pulmonary fibrosis'
  • Claudio Bussi (Argentina to United Kingdom)
    'Mitochondrial function in human macrophage Mycobaterium tuberculosis interactions'
  • Ekaterina Legchenko (Germany to United Kingdom)
    'Biological role of ATP13A3 mutations in pulmonary arterial hypertension'
  • Neil James Stewart (Japan to United States of America + United Kingdom)
    'Free-breathing, Rapid, Multi-nuclear MRI of lung structure-function in infants'
  • Diana van der Plaat (France to United Kingdom)
    'Investigation of genetic susceptibility to occupational exposure to vapours, gases, dusts and fumes in COPD development'

ERS and The Union Joint Public Health Fellowship in Respiratory Infections

  • Fabrizia Del Greco (Italy)

This initiative is offered in collaboration with The Union and is based in New Delhi, India.

Fellowship in Industry

  • Anna Salina (Latvia)

This initiative is offered in collaboration with Novartis and is based in Basel, Switzerland.

Fellowship Programme on Guidelines Methodology

  • Markus Fally (Denmark)
  • Blin Nagavci (Kosovo)

This initiative is offered in collaboration with NICE and Cochrane.

Clinical Training Fellowships [April 2019 round]

  • Sze Shyang Kho (Malaysia to United Kingdom)
    'Specialist training in the diagnosis and management of interstitial lung disease'
  • Jibril Mohammed (Nigeria to Netherlands)
    'Evidence based/individually tailored physiotherapy for patients with chronic respiratory disease undergoing pulmonary rehabilitation'
  • Anastasia Papaporfyriou (Greece to Austria)
    'Bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in patients with COPD'
  • Kseniia Suska (Ukraine to Italy)
    'Management of adults with bronchiectasis complicated by non-tuberculous Mycobacteria – lung disease'
  • Arafa Aboelhassan (Egypt to United Kingdom)
    'Bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in the treatment of severe emphysema'
  • Justus Simba (Kenya to United Kingdom)
    'Work-based experiential learning including evidence-based medicine, models of care in asthma, flexible bronchoscopy, thoracic ultrasound'