Prof Kian Fan Chung
Imperial College, United Kingdom
Cough is an open access, peer-reviewed, online journal encompassing the scientific and clinical aspects of both acute and chronic cough.
Cough has been a neglected symptom of respiratory disease, but has received a lot more attention over the past 10 years, particularly from the assessment of cough itself and the basic pathways of the cough reflex. The approach to link clinical features to basic mechanisms is a more recent activity in this field, and is leading to the recognition of a chronic cough hypersensitivity syndrome. The last 5 years of Cough as a Journal has reflected these changes and this realignment in cough thinking. We continue to welcome original work on any aspect of cough be it clinical or basic work, and it will be given the utmost consideration. We wish Cough to remain the main medium of expression of cough researchers.
Professor Chung is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College (National Heart & Lung Institute). He is also an Honorary Consultant at the Royal Brompton Hospital NHS Trust, and a Principal Investigator of its Biomedical Research Unit. He is an Investigator of the MRC/Asthma UK Centre on allergic mechanisms of Asthma, MRC/EPA Centre on Environment and Health and of the EU/EFPIA UBIOPRED project on systems biology of Severe Asthma. He is also a Fellow of the National Institute of Health Research in the UK NHS.
Professor Chung trained as a respiratory physician and researcher, and currently heads the Experimental Studies Unit at National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College. His major research interest encompasses chronic airflow obstruction in severe asthma and COPD, focusing particularly on the inflammatory and remodelling processes that involves airway smooth muscle and lung macrophages with a particular focus on oxidative mechanisms. In addition, he has an interest in the pulmonary toxic effects of ultrafines and nanoparticles. However, chronic cough remains an area of interest as a chronic cough hypersensitivity syndrome, and he is keen to find new targets for therapy for the control of chronic cough with antitussives, with the starting hypothesis that inflammatory and remodelling processes may contribute to this chronic cough hypersensitivity syndrome. Professor Chung has been co-chairing the 2-yearly International Symposia on Cough for the past 10 years.
