Professor Brown was an invited speaker at the recent American Thoracic Society meeting in San Diego, talking about the recent findings his research group has made into how the immune system protects the lungs from protection.
In addition, his clinical PhD students, Dr Jose and Dr Periselneris, presented some of their research data, and Professor Brown attended major symposia on bronchiectasis and pneumonia. These covered a lot of different areas of lung infection, including the increasing problems of antibiotic resistance and how this may be prevented, the use of longterm antibiotics in patients with bronchiectasis (especially azithromycin), and a new scoring system developed in Edinburgh for the severity of disease in patients with bronchiectasis which will help identify those patients requiring particularly intense treatment and will also help with clinical research.
Professor Brown reported that “The conference was very stimulating and provided plenty of ideas for future areas for improving the care of patients with lung infection.”