Clinical Research Fellow
Royal Brompton Hospital
Biography
Dr Ley Taing Chan graduated from Imperial College London of Medicine in 2012.
She is a respiratory specialist trainee in the North-West Thames deanery and is pursuing her PhD in lung cancer. She is currently working as a clinical research fellow with the interventional pulmonology team at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Her research interests include evaluating bronchoscopic treatments for lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
She previously worked as a clinical fellow in the West London Targeted Lung Health Check programme (lung cancer screening) between 2021 and 2024.
Respiratory Physician
Imperial College London
Biography
Dr Francesca Conway is a respiratory physician (SpR) and NIHR clinical lecturer at Imperial College London. She completed a fellowship in interventional pulmonology and a PhD evaluating a new bronchoscopic therapy for COPD. Her research interests include understanding mechanisms of airway inflammation and evaluation of bronchoscopic therapies for lung disease. She has an active role in medical education including teaching on the Imperial Translation Respiratory Medicine BSc.
She joins the CHEST early career editorial board.
Pulmonologist
Amsterdam University Medical Center, AMC, The Netherlands
Biography
Peter Bonta is Pulmonologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, AMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His focus is Interventional Pulmonology and Obstructive and Interstitial Lung Diseases. First, in Interventional Pulmonology he is involved in treatment and research in Bronchial Thermoplasty (BT),
bronchoscopic lung volume reductive (BLVR), Total Lung Denervation (TLD), lung cryobiopsy (TBLCB) and Endobronchial Ultrasound ((r)EBUS). Novel innovative imaging including Optical Coherence Tomography and Confocal Laser Endomicroscopy in these research areas are interlinked to basic science. He was
granted for BT / OCT research by a clinical Fellowship and Technical applied sciences grant of the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), Dutch Lung Foundation and PI of the international BT TASMA and BOOSTER trial
Pulmonologist
Amsterdam UMC Healthcare, The Netherlands
Biography
Prof. Jouke Annema is Professor of Pulmonary Endoscopy since 2014 at the University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University Medical Center, The Netherlands. He studied medicine at the University of Groningen, specialized in respiratory diseases at Leiden University where he also obtained his PhD (cum laude).
His research aims to contribute to achieve minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopic solutions for various pulmonary diseases with a focus on the diagnosis, staging and treatment of early-stage lung cancer and the assessment of sarcoidosis.
Additionally, he is also exploring the integration of novel optical imaging techniques including confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE), optical coherence tomography (OCT), higher harmonic generation microscopy (HHG) and targeted fluorescence in bronchoscopy. He has served as chair of Interventional Pulmonology of ERS and of the Assembly Clinical Techniques. Prof. Annema organized > 100 courses, was co- founder of the ERS EBUS training and certification program and has given lectures at many (international) events.
He is co- president of the World Congress of Bronchology to be held in April 2028 in Amsterdam. Prof. Annema initiated and conducted numerous (randomized) clinical trials, authored over 214 peer- reviewed manuscripts with an H – index of 41, including guideline changing high impact reports on EBUS and EUS in lung cancer staging and sarcoid.
Consultant Respiratory Physician
Royal Brompton Hospital
Biography
Dr Justin Garner qualified from Imperial College School of Medicine in 2008. He trained as a respiratory specialist in the Northwest Thames deanery and completed his PhD in Interventional Bronchoscopy under Professors Pallav Shah and Omar Usmani in 2020.
He has worked as a consultant respiratory physician at the Royal Brompton Hospital since October 2021 in the department of lung cancer and interventional bronchoscopy.
Dr Justin Garner has specialist expertise in:
- Management of lung cancer and pulmonary nodules (including robotic-assisted navigation bronchoscopy)
- Lung volume reduction (e.g., endobronchial valves) and novel interventional therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Bronchial thermoplasty for severe asthma
- Transbronchial cryo-excision biopsy for interstitial lung disease
- General diagnostic and interventional bronchoscopy
His research interests include small airways disease, inflammatory biomarkers, and medical device innovation (ResearchGate).
Pulmonologist
University Hospital of Basel, Switzerland
Biography
Prof Jürgen Hetzel is Head of the interventional Bronchoscopy at the University Hospital of Basel since April 2024. Hetzel is moving from the University Hospital of Tübingen to Switzerland. In Tübingen he worked as a senior physician. He headed the pneumology department and the pneumological intensive care unit for over ten years. He continues to work as an associate professor at the University Hospital in Tübingen.
Prof. Hetzel holds specialist titles in internal medicine, pneumology, sleep medicine, intensive care medicine and cardiology. Together with his brother, he discovered and developed the technique of cryorecanalisation. They were also the first to describe the current cryobiopsy technique and he developed it further for various indications.
Areas:
- Interventional bronchoscopy
- Bronchoscopic biopsy techniques
- Diagnostics of lung cancer
- Lung volume reduction
- Interstitial lung disease
- Intensive care medicine
Pulmonologist
Amsterdam UMC Healthcare, The Netherlands
Biography
Hans Daniels studied Medicine from 1995 until 2001 at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He was subsequently trained in Pulmonary Medicine at the Alkmaar Medical Center and Amsterdam University Medical Center. In 2009 he became a pulmonologist and in 2010 he earned his doctorate degree at the University of Amsterdam with his thesis “Diagnosis, Mechanisms and Treatment of Acute Exacerbations of COPD”. Subsequently he specialized in thoracic oncology and interventional pulmonology. Since 2012 he is director of bronchoscopy and interventional pulmonology at the Amsterdam UMC. The department of Pulmonary Medicine of the Amsterdam UMC (head: prof Anton Vonk Noordegraaf) is a tertiary referral centre for lung cancer, interventional pulmonology, asthma, interstitial lung disease, infectious respiratory disease and pulmonary hypertension. Hans has 15
years of experience as an all-round interventional pulmonologist, performing a wide range of procedures such as flexible bronchoscopy, EBUS, rigid bronchoscopy, diathermy, laser, cryotherapy/-biopsy, stenting and thoracoscopy.
He is course director at the School of Respirology, that organizes courses about interventional pulmonology and airway management. He is a member of several medical societies such as the European Respiratory Society, the European Association for Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology and the Dutch Respiratory Society. From 2018 until 2023 he has chaired the organizing committee of the annual congress of the Dutch Respiratory Society. He has been involved in several guideline committees, and he chaired the guideline for Pleural Diseases of the Dutch Respiratory Society. His current research areas include diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer, navigation bronchoscopy, bronchoscopic treatment of
central airway tumours such as bronchial carcinoid, tracheal stenosis and airway stenting. He has co-supervised several PhD students on projects ranging from interventional pulmonology to lung cancer surgery to primary ciliary dyskinesia.
Pulmonary Physician
University Medical Centre, Groningen, The Netherlands
Biography
Curiosity, innovation, and improving unmet needs are a few of my personal drives to perform research. As a pulmonary physician on a daily basis, it is very visible that life is very vulnerable, and “that every breath counts”. After having seen thousands of severe COPD patients for a wide variety of often still experimental interventional pulmonary treatments, it became obvious that we are only able to effectively treat a very small portion of this patient population. With an international alliance we have a greater opportunity to succeed in further developing new strategies, improve current practice and drive training & education.
My own research and research group is one of the key players in the world around the development of innovative, minimally invasive therapeutic interventional treatments for COPD (both bronchitis and emphysema). Bringing ideas in this exciting field from bench to bedside, and even getting them worldwide approved, used, and embedded in treatment guidelines is my key focus. More specific my
research deals with 1) invention and early adaption of medical devices for COPD, 2) advanced COPD imaging for precise phenotyping supporting new interventions, 3) as spin-off: innovative interventional pulmonology treatments for other lung diseases (mainly lung cancer and benign airway disease), and 4) translational research in COPD.
The outreach of our scientific clinical work has led to the implementation of new treatments for emphysema worldwide, such as the endobronchial valve- and coil treatments, which are currently guideline therapies. Creating therapies for a severe – and often untreatable – disease as COPD results in a lot of public awareness. Our work therefore often results in news items, television documentaries, and magazine articles worldwide. Being one of the key players in this field, I advise scientific medical groups, hospitals, and individual physicians on these new treatments, both as research opportunity, but also on an individual patient level in over 40 countries.
Consultant Respiratory Physician
Royal Brompton Hospital
Biography
Dr Samuel Kemp is a consultant respiratory physician, based at Royal Brompton Hospital, who treats both NHS and private patients.
He studied medicine at Imperial College London and qualified in 2001. Following this, he completed postgraduate research on bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in severe emphysema. He studied this at Royal Brompton Hospital and was awarded an MD for it.
Afterwards, Dr Kemp started working as a consultant physician in the East Midlands. He set up an interventional bronchoscopy service at King’s Mill Hospital, including lung volume reduction, airway debulking, and endobronchial ultrasound (for mediastinal lymph nodes and peripheral nodules), and a new bronchiectasis clinical service. He was also the director of research and innovation at the hospital.
Dr Kemp returned to Royal Brompton Hospital in 2015.
Consultant Respiratory Physician
Royal Brompton Hospital
Biography
Dr Christopher Orton graduated from St George’s Hospital Medical School with MBBS and a BSc in Biochemistry and Immunology. Having completed his general medical and respiratory specialty training in London, Dr Orton has worked at prestigious teaching hospitals, including Hammersmith Hospital, St Mary’s Hospital, St George’s Hospital, and Royal Brompton Hospital. Dr Orton has completed a PhD with Imperial College London on the effects of epithelial resurfacing with liquid nitrogen using Metered Cryospray in patients with COPD.
Dr Orton’s NHS base is Royal Brompton Hospital, a highly specialised heart and lung hospital where he is a member of the lung cancer and interventional bronchoscopy unit.
Through his continued links with Imperial College London, Dr Orton is highly active in basic science and clinical research, conducting studies, supervising PhD students, and publishing papers in high-impact medical journals.