Research interests

• Mechanisms of lung diseases
• Viral-induced exacerbations of lung disease
• Asthma
• Pulmonary fibrosis
• COPD

Current research

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, virus-induced exacerbations of asthma and COPD, interstitial lung diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and, most recently, COVID-19. She has pioneered the use of in vitro models allowing the use of methodologies that could not be used ethically in vivo. 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.

Notable discoveries from her work include demonstration of defective epithelial barrier function in asthma, dissection of the biological function of the asthma susceptibility gene, ADAM33, involvement of the epithelial mesenchymal tropic unit in asthma pathogenesis, dysregulation of collagen nanoarchitecture in IPF 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. The latter discovery led to a patent for the use of inhaled interferon-beta (IFN-β) for treatment of virus-induced exacerbations of asthma and COPD. To translate this discovery into a potentially new therapy, she co-founded the University of Southampton spin-out company ‘Synairgen’, with Stephen Holgate and Ratko Djukanovic in 2003 and she continues to play an active role in the company. The company has developed inhaled IFN-β and successfully completed phase II trials in asthma and COPD. With the urgency of the COVID19 pandemic, the company redirected its efforts towards testing inhaled IFN-β  as a treatment for this disease.

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 an RD Lawrence Fellowship from the British Diabetic Association in 1982. 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 in 1998 and then a Readership in 2002.  In 2014, she received the Robert A. Cooke Memorial Medal from the American Academy Of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (since 2014), a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society (since 2015) and in 2020 received lifetime membership of the British Association for Lung Research in recognition of her contribution to the BALR and lung research.

Prizes