Professor Donna Davies BSc, PhD

Professor of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology,, Director of Immunity and Infection Pathway Integrated PhD

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Professor Donna Davies is Professor of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, within Medicine at the University of Southampton.

Professor Donna Davies (nee Harrison) was awarded a Personal Chair in Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology in 2004. She graduated with a first class degree in Biochemistry from the University of Wales and completed her PhD in microbial biochemistry in 1979. She started her post-doctoral studies at the University of Oxford investigating the regulation of insulin secretion and continued this work following the award of a Lawrence Fellowship from the British Diabetic Association. She moved to the CRC Wessex Medical Oncology Unit at the University of Southampton in 1985, before she joined the Respiratory Group through the award of a University of Southampton Senior Research Fellowship and then a Readership.

Professor Davies leads a multidisciplinary group that studies mechanisms of respiratory diseases, especially in areas of unmet medical need such as severe, corticosteroid refractory asthma and virus-induced exacerbations of asthma and COPD. She has pioneered the use of in vitro models allowing the use of methodologies that could not be used ethically in vivo. Notable discoveries from her work include demonstration of defective epithelial barrier function in asthma and identification of a lesion in innate immune response of asthmatic epithelial cells that may explain why the common cold virus causes exacerbations of asthma. This has led to a patent for the use of inhaled interferon-beta (IFN-β) for treatment of virus-induced exacerbations of asthma and COPD. This novel therapeutic is currently in Phase II clinical trials having been developed by ‘Synairgen’, a University of Southampton spin-out company that she co-founded with Stephen Holgate and Ratko Djukanovic in 2003. The group works closely with respiratory physicians and colleagues within the centre, with other academic centres and industry in the UK, Europe and the USA. Current research projects in her laboratory are supported by the MRC, NC3Rs, EPSRC, TSB, Asthma UK and the Roger Brooke Charitable Trust.

Qualifications

BSc, Biochemistry, University of Wales (1975)

PhD, Ribulose 1,5 Bisphosphate Carboxylase from Microorganisms,
University of Wales (1979)

Appointments held

Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Nuffield Dept. of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Oxford (1979-1982)

R.D. Lawrence Fellow of The British Diabetic Association, Nuffield Dept. of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Oxford (1982-1984)

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Nuffield Dept. of Clinical Biochemistry, University of Oxford (1984-1985)

Research Fellow, Medical Oncology, University of Southampton (1985-1989)

Senior Research Fellow, Medical Oncology, University of Southampton (1989-1997)

Southampton Senior Research Fellow, University of Southampton (1998-2002)

Reader in Respiratory, Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Southampton (2002 – 2004)

Professor of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Division of Infection, Inflammation & Immunity, University of Southampton (2004-present)

Director, Allergy and Inflammation Research, University of Southampton 2008-2011

Head of the Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton 2011-current