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Congratulations to Dr Freda Yang, respiratory consultant at Royal Brompton Hospital, who has been awarded a junior research fellowship to lead a study aiming to improve treatment decisions for people with severe asthma.

Funded by Asthma + Lung UK, this is the first time this award has been granted to someone at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals.

There are many people across the UK who live with severe asthma, which can have a profound impact on their daily lives. New treatments, called biologics, are injectables that target a specific part of the immune system. These can be highly effective for people with severe asthma, but many have to try and fail several biologics before the right one is found. This may be because tests used to guide these decisions, usually a blood test and sometimes a breath test, don’t sample the airway directly, even though asthma is a disease of the airways.

In her research, Dr Yang plans to explore whether sampling the airway directly can better match patients to the most effective biologic from the very start.

Her work builds on earlier research in which she analysed large patient datasets and led a multi-centre clinical trial across the UK. This research showed that even patients who appear very similar can respond very differently to treatment, and that the blood tests clinicians rely on don’t always reflect what’s happening in the airways.

In this fellowship, Dr Yang will use a technique called nasosorption, which gently collects samples from the lining of the nose. She hopes to find more accurate markers of how a patient’s asthma is behaving and how they are likely to respond to treatment. This could give clinicians a clearer, more direct picture than a blood test can offer.  

Ultimately, this work could help move asthma care towards a more personalised approach, where treatment is tailored to each individual rather than based on broad groups. For patients, this could mean fewer flare-ups, less need for steroids, and a better quality of life.

The fellowship marks an important step in Dr Yang’s clinical academic career and reflects the growing focus on more personalised approaches to respiratory care.

Speaking about the award, Dr Yang said:

“I’m hugely grateful to Asthma + Lung UK for making this study possible. Too many people with severe asthma spend months, sometimes years, trying treatments that don’t work for them.

“Together with my co-applicant, Professor David Jackson, I hope to find a better way of matching the right biologic to the right patient from the outset. We’ll be piloting the study at Royal Brompton Hospital and Guy’s Hospital, and we believe it could be a real step forward for patients.”