Rate My Professor Andres Floto

Professor Andres Floto is University Professor of Respiratory Biology at the University of Cambridge since 2014. He obtained his BA in 1991, MA in 1995, PhD in 1997, and MB BChir in 1997 from the University of Cambridge. He became MRCP in 2000, completed specialist respiratory training in 2007, and FRCP in 2013. His career encompasses an MRC/AMS Tenure-Track Clinician Scientist Fellowship at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (2008-2016), where he served as Principal Investigator, followed by Group Leader in the Molecular Immunity Unit at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Current roles include Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine and Cambridge Infectious Diseases Interdisciplinary Research Centre (both 2020-), Director of the UK Cystic Fibrosis Innovation Hub (2017-), Research Director of the Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection at Royal Papworth Hospital (2009-), and Honorary Respiratory Consultant at Cambridge University Hospitals and Royal Papworth Hospital (2008-).

Floto's research investigates innate immune responses to bacterial lung pathogens, bacterial genomic evolution during chronic infection and transmission, novel antibiotic and host-directed therapies via forward/reverse genetics, fragment-based discovery, and machine learning, alongside clinical studies on cystic fibrosis, non-CF bronchiectasis, and nontuberculous mycobacterial infections. He holds Wellcome Trust Investigator status and has received the European Respiratory Society Gold Medal (2022), Weber-Parkes Medal from the Royal College of Physicians (2017), European Respiratory Society awards (2022, 2014, 2007), Vertex Innovation Award (2016), Rosetrees Interdisciplinary Prize (2015), BUPA Researcher of the Year (2010), and election as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2022). Notable publications include 'Evolution and host-specific adaptation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa' (Science, 2024), 'Stepwise pathogenic evolution of Mycobacterium abscessus' (Science, 2021), 'Emergence and spread of a human-transmissible multidrug-resistant nontuberculous mycobacterium' (Science, 2016), and 'Dendritic cell stimulation by mycobacterial Hsp70 is mediated through CCR5' (Science, 2006). He co-chairs the British Thoracic Society NTM Guidelines Committee, US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation-European Cystic Fibrosis Society NTM Guidelines Group, and European Cystic Fibrosis Society NTM Working Group.