Dr. Felix Ratjen is a Paediatric Respirologist in the Division of Respiratory Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. He is also Program Head and Senior Scientist in the Translational Medicine research program at SickKids Research Institute and co-leads the SickKids CF Centre. Dr. Ratjen conducts multiple clinical trials addressing cystic fibrosis lung disease including new therapeutic strategies to target the underlying defect, treatment of airway infections such as first infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, airway inflammation and other important aspects of the disease. In addition, he is involved in developing and validating new outcome measures to quantify important aspects of CF lung disease that can be utilized in clinical trials. He also studies other lung diseases and over the recent years has developed an interest in the clinical evaluation of Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), for which he is leading one of the largest dedicated paediatric clinics.

Susanna A. McColley, MD, FAAP, ATSF is Professor of Pediatrics in Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Scientific Director for Interdisciplinary Research Partnerships at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Her primary research focus is cystic fibrosis includes epidemiology, clinical trials of new therapies, improving newborn screening for diagnostic timeliness and equity, and new tools for diagnosis and disease monitoring. As Editor-in-Chief of Pediatric Pulmonology, she is a continuous learner who is dedicated to not only providing a venue for new research, but for reviews, case reports and commentaries that support evidence-based clinical practice, recognition of rare conditions and innovations in the care of children with respiratory disease. She is determined to improve health equity through research, dissemination, educational initiatives and fostering career development. At Northwestern University, she co-leads a course on antiracism in science, directs a National Institutes of Health funded postdoctoral training program, and co-directs a career development core for early career faculty underrepresented in biomedical research through an NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustained Transformation grant. Her work is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Rosenau Family Research Foundation, and Stanley Manne Children's Research Institute.

Adnan Custovic MD PhD FAAAI is Professor of Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College London. His research has focused upon the origins and natural history of asthma and allergy across the life-course. He pioneered the use of data-driven methodologies in the analysis of complex data, including some of the first uses of machine learning in respiratory medicine/allergy. In 2020, he was elected to the Fellowship of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. In 2023 he was elected as EAACI Fellow (FEAACI). He was elected as NIHR Senior Investigator in 2023. In 2021, he was awarded a Fellowship of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland (FaOP). In 2015 he was awarded ERS Gold Medal for research in asthma. In 2013 he received the BSACI William Frankland Medal for outstanding contributions to clinical allergy in the UK. He delivered numerous prestigious keynote/named lectures. He publisher >450 papers in peer-reviewed journals, with>59,000 citations and h-index of 113. He serves at the Board of Directors of the World Allergy Organisation and has served as a Secretary of the BSACI for two terms, and as President of Asthma section of the EAACI. He has supervised 19 PhD/MD students to completion.