Biography

Professor Davies qualified at the University of Dundee Medical School in 1987 and started her clinical training in paediatrics in London. A position at Royal Brompton Hospital led to her interest in cystic fibrosis and in particular host-pathogen interactions.

Her MD, under the supervision of professors Andy Bush and Eric Alton, focused on the pathogenesis of pseudomonas aeruginosa in the lung. 

Professor Davies completed her clinical training at Great Ormond Street Hospital in the respiratory medicine and immunology/infectious diseases departments. 

She returned to Royal Brompton Hospital as an honorary consultant in 1999. At the same time, she joined Imperial College London's National Heart and Lung Institute as a senior lecturer.

Areas of expertise

Professor Davies has expertise in paediatric respiratory medicine, cystic fibrosis (CF), nasal potential difference (nPD) and clinical trials.

Research projects

Her current projects include translational research in cystic fibrosis, clinical trial design and the validation of outcome measures such as lung clearance index and sputum inflammatory markers. 

Professor Davies conducts the bronchoscopic assays and leads on the electrophysiological measurements (PD) both in the nose and lower airway on the UK CF Gene Therapy Consortium trials.

She has been involved for several years in a programme of opportunistic bronchoscopic research, using bronchoalveolar lavage and endobronchial biopsies to define inflammatory and remodelling changes at various stages of childhood airways disease.

As part of an interest in non-invasive measurements of airway disease, Professor Davies has collaborated internally on projects including cyanogenesis in pseudomonas, bronchial blood flow measurements and pathogen-derived volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath. 

She is a member of the chronic suppurative lung disease (CSLD) consortium of the respiratory biomedical research unit (BRU) which has a strong emphasis on microbiology, in particular, novel molecular detection tools.

Professor Davies also works on a number of commercially-sponsored clinical trials in CF. She is the local principal investigator on trials of VX-770 (Vertex) and Ataluran (PTC) which are novel small-molecules directed at CFTR function. She is part of the respiratory and CF clinical studies group of the Medicines for Children Research Network and is the MCRN research champion for Royal Brompton Hospital.

Teaching

Professor Davies has delivered plenary lectures at European cystic fibrosis conferences and is regularly invited to speak at national and international respiratory and paediatric meetings. 

She supervises several PhD and MDRes students, teaching on Imperial College London's undergraduate courses and is a personal tutor for a group of Imperial medical undergraduates. 

She has trained colleagues from many other centres in the use of nasal potential difference in the diagnosis of atypical CF.

Publications

Professor Davies has co-edited three textbooks and contributed chapters to many other textbooks.