Andrew Bush is professor of paediatric respirology, Imperial College, academic director of paediatrics at the National Heart and Lung Institute, and honorary consultant paediatric chest physician at the Royal Brompton Hospital. He is senior investigator of the NIHR, and a principal investigator in the MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma.

When it became clear that he had failed to inherit a single one of his father's musical talents, Professor Bush went into medicine as a more promising career. He trained at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and University College Hospital, London. He did his house jobs at Stafford General Infirmary (where he caused a scandal by cohabiting with his own wife) and University College Hospital, London. After SHO and registrar posts in adult medicine, he obtained the MD degree in the Department of Clinical Physiology, as a British Heart Foundation junior fellow supervised by Professor David Denison, in the field of pulmonary circulatory physiology.

The research programme became more and more paediatric, with increasing research interests in the circulatory physiology in the context of congenital heart disease, under the supervision of Dr Elliott Shinebourne, and so Professor Bush then went into paediatrics, training initially at University College Hospital and Hillingdon Hospital and then training in paediatric respiratory medicine with Professor John Warner at the Brompton Hospital, and Professor Mike Silverman at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School. He was appointed consultant and senior lecturer in paediatric respirology in January 1991, and was made professor at Imperial College in 2002.

His research interests include the invasive and non-invasive measurement of airway inflammation in children, in particular the use of endobronchial biopsy in the management of severe asthma, and also respiratory mass spectrometry. Thanks to the many people whom he has been lucky enough to count among his collaborators, he has raised more than £40m in peer review grants and donations. He has supervised 25 MD and PhD degrees, authored nearly 350 papers in peer review journals, and written more than 70 chapters in books and monographs. He coedited the 7th edition of Kendig's Disorders of the Respiratory Tract in Children (and is curently working on the 8th edition), and Cystic Fibrosis in the 21st Century, a Monograph in the series “Progress in Respiratory Research.” He has been deputy editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (the highest impact factor respiratory journal, the only deputy editor from outside North America), and head of the paediatric assembly of the European Respiratory Society. He is the joint editor in chief of Thorax, the 2nd ranked chest journal in the world, and top-ranked outside North America, the first paediatrician to hold this post. He has served as associate editor for Europe for Paediatric Pulmonology. He has been visiting professor at Melbourne Childrens' Hospital, at Wake Forest, North Carolina, USA, and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, where he delivered the annual George Polgar Lecture. He was 2007 Charles West lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians. Other visiting professorships include Miami Childrens Hospital and Virginia Commonwealth University and he has been Nancy N Huang professor at St Christopher's Hospital, Philadelphia.

When not plying his trade in paediatrics, Professor Bush enjoys family life with his wife (with whom he still cohabits, scandal or not) and his four children, none of whom show any signs of following their father into medicine. He enjoys reading (especially when he is supposed to be being sociable), ball games (in particular on the rare occasions when England actually win something), and listening to music (after being given an ASBO for his last attempts at performance). He shows no signs of fulfilling any domestic responsibilities or of growing old at all gracefully. Most importantly, he is the grandfather of Dylan, the most intelligent, talented and beautiful child in the known universe.

Competing Interests

Have you in the past five years accepted the following from an organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?

Reimbursement for attending a symposium?
No

A fee for speaking?
I have accepted fees for speaking from pharmaceutical companies; for the last 2 years, all such fees have been paid direct into Departmental funds

A fee for organising education?
I have accepted fees for speaking from pharmaceutical companies; for the last 2 years, all such fees have been paid direct into Departmental funds

Funds for research?
I have received funding as co-investigator for various clinical trials, the only major one being £200K from Pharmaxis for a trial of inhaled mannitol, published in Thorax; ongoing trials are all registered with MCRN.

Funds for a member of staff?
A research fellow supported by £200K from Pharmaxis for a trial of inhaled mannitol, published in Thorax. No ongoing funding

Fees for consulting?
No

Have you in the past five years been employed by any organisation that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of papers in the BMJ?
No

Do you hold any stocks or shares in an organisation?
Not relevant to respiratory disease, no tobacco interests ever

Do you have any other competing financial interests?
No

Do you have any other financial competing interests? If so, please specify.
No