Rhinovirus Infections: Rethinking the Impact on Human Health and Disease

A/Prof Bartlett trained as a virologist, first at the University of Oxford and then at Imperial College London. It was at Imperial, based in the National Heart and Lung Institute, that his research became squarely focused on the disease burden associated with rhinovirus infections. At that time pre-clinical models of rhinovirus infection and disease were limited so much of his research was devoted to addressing this deficit. This led to development of in vivo rhinovirus infection models that are now an essential research tool for rhinovirus research worldwide. Following his return to Australia he accepted an academic appointment at the University of Newcastle and formed the Viral Immunology and Respiratory Disease group, based at the Hunter Medical Research Institute (Newcastle, Australia). Since that time A/Prof Bartlett has consolidated his position as an internationally recognised expert on rhinovirus pre-clinical models and disease mechanisms and is currently involved in development and commercialisation of multiple new therapies aimed at preventing the plethora of diseases caused by rhinovirus infections. He is also an associate editor for the American Journal of Physiology – Lung Molecular and Cellular Physiology and member of the College of Experts for the European Respiratory Society.

Peter Wark is a senior staff specialist in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle and a conjoint Professor with the University of Newcastle. He is a senior investigator with the Priority Research Centre for Healthy Lungs at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. He is also a chief investigator in the NHMRC Centre of Excellence in Severe Asthma.
His research interests are; airway inflammation in the context of chronic airways disease, innate immunity and the role of infection in chronic airways disease. His group has developed expertise in identifying respiratory viruses in airway secretions and developing an in-vitro cell culture model of the airway epithelium that we use to model the effect of infection and inflammation. His research focuses upon factors that increase susceptibility to virus infection in asthma, COPD, Cystic Fibrosis and bronchiectasis. Characterising airway inflammation and innate immune responses in chronic airways disease and applying this to clinical care, as well as the development of precise individualised management strategies.

He is the centre director for the John Hunter Adult Cystic Fibrosis clinic that manages over 100 adult patients with CF in the context of a multidisciplinary team. He works in the severe asthma clinic as well as in general respiratory clinics at John Hunter Hospital and runs indigenous outreach clinics at Narrabri and Moree. He is chairperson for the Hunter New England Local Hospital network respiratory stream, responsible for the provision of respiratory services throughout the Hunter New England area, with a catchment population of 840,000. He is a board member of Cystic Fibrosis Australia.

Peter qualified as a Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Newcastle, Australia in 1991 and qualified as a specialist in Respiratory and Sleep Medicine as a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 1999.
From 2001-2005 he was a post doctoral research fellow under an NHMRC Neil Hamilton Fairley Travelling Fellowship at the University of Southampton and University College London, under the supervision of Professors Stephen Holgate, Donna Davies and Sebastian Johnston.
From 1998-2001 he completed a PhD under the supervision of Professors Peter Gibson and Michael Hensley at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
He was a member of the TSANZ executive board and chairman of the clinical care and resources subcommittee from 2011 to 2015. He was a board member of the National Asthma Council of Australia from 2011 to 2014.

Peter is married to Katrina, and parents to Kirsty, Marden, Jasmine, Sarah, David, Charlotte and Eliza and grandfather to Elijah and Cohen.

Prof. Knight obtained his PhD from the University of Western Australia in 1993. In 2004, he was recruited to the University of British Columbia as the Canada Research Chair in Airway Disease. He was recruited back to Australia in 2013 and is currently Professor and Head of School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy at the University of Newcastle. Prof Knight is an experienced cell biologist/Pharmacologist with an international reputation in the area of lung and airway remodelling. His research career has focused on understanding how abnormal epithelial cell-fibroblast interactions influence the severity and chronicity of respiratory diseases such as asthma, pulmonary fibrosis and COPD, particularly in the context of environmental challenges. Most recently, Prof Knight co-leads the Singapore International Respiratory Research Consortium, which comprises investigators from 6 Universities from around the world who come together to investigate the impact of the environment on respiratory health. Prof Knight is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Wellcome Trust funded Breathing Well program.