Biography

Dr Anand Shah completed his medical training at Imperial College London in 2004 alongside an intercalated BSc. He trained as a respiratory doctor in North West London and spent time working within the lung transplant unit at Harefield Hospital and the Host Defence Unit at Royal Brompton hospital.

It was during this time that he encountered numerous individuals with a fungal lung infection and developed his academic interest to try and better understand host susceptibility to fungal infection and develop translational research strategies to improve outcomes. This interest led to an MRC clinical PhD research fellowship in 2012-2015 in the Armstrong-James laboratory at Imperial College London analysing the effects of calcineurin inhibition on the human macrophage response to Aspergillus fumigatus using a combination of high-resolution time-lapse confocal microscopy alongside an 'omics' based approach.

This work was published in the American Journal of Critical Care Medicine and presented at numerous national and international presentations. Following completion of his PhD and clinical training, he took up a consultant position at Royal Brompton and Harefield hospitals, working in the adult cystic fibrosis and host defence departments.

He has continued and expanded his academic interests and research during this time, receiving numerous research awards and funding.

Clinical expertise

Dr Anand Shah has a range of clinical expertise and interests including:

  • fungal lung disease, including allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis and chronic pulmonary aspergillosis
  • bronchiectasis
  • primary ciliary dyskinesia
  • cystic fibrosis
  • general respiratory disease.

Research Interests

Dr Shah has ongoing active research interests in a number of fields but primarily focuses on how to better understand and improve outcomes in fungal lung disease. He has been awarded numerous research awards and grants as a consultant and collaborates closely with academic colleagues at Imperial College London including Professor Darius Armstrong-James and Professor Matthew Fisher. 

His current research interests include: 

  • understanding host susceptibility to fungal lung disease and therapeutic strategies to improve outcome
  • antifungal resistance
  • bronchiectasis – understanding mechanisms behind susceptibility to exacerbations
  • use of machine learning and data science to improve outcomes in lung infection
  • effects of elite exercise on immune responses and susceptibility to infection.

Teaching

Dr Shah is a member of the British Thoracic Society Specialist Advisory Group for respiratory infection (2018 - current). He is also a member of the Antimicrobial Resistance in Cystic Fibrosis International Working Group.

Dr Shah collaborates within the industry and has received numerous industry-sponsored research innovation awards and investigator-led research grants. He is a sub-investigator on multiple multi-centre international clinical trials. 

Dr Shah supervises PhD and MSc students as well as medical students for research attachments. He has also sponsored two Darzi fellows in clinical leadership. He lectures about his clinical specialist areas and research at national and international meetings and is involved in public and patient education. 

Awards

  • MRC Clinical Academic Research Partnership award (2019).
  • Cystic Fibrosis Mentored Research Innovation Award (2018). 
  • Gilead UK Fellowship in Invasive Fungal Infection (2017).
  • Cystic Fibrosis Trust Clinical Excellence and Innovation Award (2017). 
  • NHS Darzi Fellowship in clinical leadership (2017 and 2018).
  • MRC Clinical Research Fellowship (2011).
  • London Deanery Postgraduate Education Fellowship (2010).

Publications

  • Using artificial intelligence in fungal lung disease: CPA CT imaging as an example.
  • A retrospective ‘real-world’ cohort study of azole therapeutic drug monitoring and evolution of antifungal resistance in cystic fibrosis.
  • Confronting and mitigating the risk of COVID-19 associated pulmonary aspergillosis.
  • The contribution of Aspergillus fumigatus to COPD exacerbations: a “sensitive” topic.
  • Pulsed echinocandin therapy in azole intolerant or multi-resistant chronic pulmonary aspergillosis: A retrospective review at a UK tertiary centre.
  • Tablet and web-based audiometry to screen for hearing loss in adults with cystic fibrosis.
  • Unravelling machine learning – Insights in respiratory medicine.
  • Posaconazole for the treatment of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis in patients with cystic fibrosis.
  • Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and associated clinical outcomes in individuals with cystic fibrosis: A systematic review.
  • Ibrutinib blocks BTK-dependent NF-κB and NFAT responses in human macrophages during Aspergillus fumigatus phagocytosis.
  • Calcineurin orchestrates lateral transfer of Aspergillus fumigatus during macrophage cell death.
  • A longitudinal study of an adult primary ciliary dyskinesia cohort.
  • Phagocytosis-dependent activation of a TLR9-BTK-calcineurin-NFAT pathway co-ordinates innate immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus.