Rate My Professor Chris Brightling

Professor Chris Brightling is NIHR Senior Investigator and Clinical Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Leicester, where he serves as Director of the Institute for Lung Health and Respiratory Theme Lead for the Leicester NIHR Biomedical Research Centre. He earned his PhD in Infection, Inflammation and Immunity from the University of Leicester between 1998 and 2002 and holds qualifications including FRCP, AFHEA, FCCP, and FERS. As an Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician, he has held leadership roles such as Chair of the NIHR Respiratory Translational Research Collaboration, ERS Science Council Chair, and Founding Director of the European Respiratory Society Clinical Research Collaborations. Since 2004, he has been Professor and Honorary Consultant in Respiratory Science at the University of Leicester.

Brightling's research focuses on improving clinical management and elucidating the immunopathogenesis of airway diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and chronic cough. He pioneered biomarkers to phenotype airways disease, translating mechanistic insights—such as mast cell and airway smooth muscle interactions—into clinical trials and practice. He was the first to demonstrate the clinical utility of measuring airway inflammation for managing asthma and COPD and to identify non-asthmatic eosinophilic bronchitis as a common cause of chronic cough. His work has influenced international guidelines, including those from GINA, ATS/ERS Severe Asthma, British Thoracic Society, and American College of Chest Physicians’ Cough Guidelines. With over 450 peer-reviewed publications cited more than 110,000 times, key works include 'Severe exacerbations in moderate-to-severe asthmatics are associated with increased pro-inflammatory and type 1 mediators in sputum and serum' (BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 2019), 'Neutrophil elastase as a biomarker for bacterial infection in COPD' (Respiratory Research, 2019), and 'Blood eosinophil count and airway epithelial transcriptome relationships in COPD versus asthma' (Allergy, 2019). Elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2019, he led the national PHOSP-COVID consortium and coordinated local COVID-19 research responses across University of Leicester and NHS sites.