Institute for Lung Health

The Leicester Institute for Lung Health (ILH) was established by the Senate of the University of Leicester in 2000 to act as an umbrella for all those engaged in respiratory research and clinical development in Leicester.

Its members are senior academics, clinicians and para-clinical staff involved in respiratory medicine in Leicester. It encompasses research done within the University's Respiratory Science Dept and the NIHR Leicester Respiratory Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Most of its members are within the university Department of Infection Immunity and Inflammation and the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.

It includes research done within the adult respiratory medicine group based at Glenfield Hospital, paediatric researchers based at the Leicester Royal Infirmary site and respiratory infections scientists based on the main university campus. Research undertaken under the auspices of the ILH ranges from health services research involving changes in NHS practice to clinical trials of new therapeutic entities, experimental medicine, genetics of lung function, microbial pathogenesis and animal models of lung infections.

A key role for the ILH has been to foster a seamless interaction between researchers employed by the University and the NHS the success of which was a major factor in the award of the respiratory BRC to Leicester in 2011.

Members of the ILH have attracted over £60 million in research funding since 2006 and have published over 200 papers affiliated to the ILH including six papers in the New England Journal of Medicine since 2002:

• Trial of 2009 influenza A (H1N1) monovalent MF59-adjuvanted vaccine.(Clark et al, NEJM 2009 Dec 17;361(25):2424-35; Epub 2009 Sep 10;
• Mepolizumab and Exacerbations of Refractory Eosinophilic Asthma. Haldar et al, NEJM 2009 Mar 5;360(10):973-84;
• Oral Prednisolone for Preschool Children with Acute Virus-Induced Wheezing. Panickar et al, NEJM 2009 Jan 22;360(4):329-38;
• Carbon in Airway Macrophages and Lung Function in Children. Kulkarni et al, NEJM 2006 Jul 6;355(1):21-30;
• Evidence of a Role of Tumor Necrosis Factor α in Refractory Asthma. Berry et al, NEJM 2006 Feb 16;354(7):697-708;
• Mast-Cell Infiltration of Airway Smooth Muscle in Asthma. Brightling et al, NEJM 2002 May 30;346(22):1699-705)

And two of the ten most highly cited original papers in asthma over the last decade; Green et al Lancet 2002 Nov 30;360(9347):1715-21 and Brightling et al, NEJM 2002 May 30;346(22):1699-705.

A key focus of the ILH is its annual research day.

The team with their award