Core Study Team
MD – Lead PI
Paul McNally
Paul is a consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine and Director of Research and Innovation at Children’s Health Ireland. He is an associate Professor of Paediatrics at RCSI in Dublin. Paul’s main research interest is early CF lung disease and response to CF modulator therapies. Paul is lead investigator for the ENHANCE study.
MD – Co-PI
Jane Davies
Jane is a Professor in Paediatric Respirology & Experimental Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute and an Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. She co-leads the site at the European CF Society Clinical Trials Network and has personal research programmes in infection, lung physiology and imaging.
PHD – Project Manager
Karen Lester
Karen is the ENHANCE Project Manager who plays a key role in the planning, coordination and execution of the study, working alongside the Lead Investigator (Paul McNally), Co-PI, site PI’s, study management team and clinical research coordinators/research nurses to ensure all endpoints and timelines are met. Karen completed her PhD at the University of Liverpool in 2017 specialising in Ophthalmology and joined the NCRC in July 2020 as a Clinical Research Coordinator. Prior to this, Karen worked as a Research Officer for an NGO facilitating genetic testing for individuals living with rare eye disease, and assisting with the collection of real-world evidence for use in Health Technology Assessments.
ENHANCE Study Monitor
Mary Abkir
Mary trained in Paediatric Respiratory/Sleep Physiology at Great Ormond Street Hospital as part of the Practitioner Training Programme (PTP) and graduated with a 1st class degree in Clinical Physiology in 2019. She joined the LCI Core Facility team in 2020 and is the lead coordinator for RECOVER at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Her other duties include: performing multiple breath washout (MBW) tests for clinical trials, analysing MBW data and providing training & certification to clinical sites across Europe.