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Professor Jane Lucas

Professor Lucas is a paediatrician with a sub-specialty interest in respiratory conditions.

FRCPCH, FRCP, PhD

Training and education

  • Bachelor of medicine - University of Southampton, 1989
  • MRCP (member of the Royal College of Physicians) (UK)
  • MRCPCH (member of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) (UK)
  • Specialist post-graduate clinical training in respiratory pediatrics and allergy
  • PhD - University of Southampton, 2005

Experience

Professor Lucas has worked as a consultant paediatrician at the Trust since 2006. As a paediatric respiratory consultant, she leads the national primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) service in Southampton.

Prof Lucas sees adults and children from across the country in diagnostic clinics for PCD, a rare inherited lung disease. The clinics are supported by state-of the art PCD diagnostic laboratories here at UHS. Following diagnosis, she continues the care of children with PCD, referring adults to the adult PCD service.

Key achievements

Since being appointed as a consultant in 2006, Prof Lucas has set up and led the national PCD diagnostic laboratories and clinics in Southampton. In 2012 she successfully obtained national funding for further development of the PCD centre in Southampton, providing a service to look after children with the disease.

Prof Lucas chairs the European Respiratory Society Task Force (TF-2014-04), which has published the first evidence-based guidelines for the diagnosis of PCD. She's also the chair of BEAT-PCD (COST Action BM1407). This is a global network coordinating research from basic science to clinical care, with the ultimate goal of developing treatments that lead to improvements in the long-term outcomes of patients with PCD.

Research

Prof Lucas's research aims to improve the diagnosis and management of patients with PCD. She's a leader in a large European study to improve the understanding of PCD (EU-FP7 BESTCILIA). She also leads an NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) funded study to investigate the validity of a test called high-speed video microscopy, which is used to diagnose PCD.

Prof Lucas is currently investigating new methods to improve diagnostics and monitoring of disease progression. She's published over 100 peer reviewed research articles, mainly in the fields of PCD, asthma and allergy.

Information on Dr Lucas's research and publications is available on the University of Southampton website.