Summary
Richard is a consultant respiratory physician specialising in interstitial lung disease (ILD) at the Royal Brompton Hospital. He is an honorary clinical senior lecturer in the National Heart and Lung Institute and visiting scientist at the Francis Crick Institute, where he has ongoing research collaborations.
Richard qualified with distinctions at Imperial College London in 2011 and achieved first-class honours in an intercalated BSc in respiratory sciences. He undertook postgraduate general medical training in London attaining MRCP(UK) in 2014. He specialised in respiratory medicine at St Mary’s Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital and the Royal Brompton Hospital.
Alongside his clinical training Richard gained extensive research experience through NIHR academic clinical fellowship and clinical lectureship awards and holds a postgraduate certificate in genomics medicine. In 2017 he was awarded an Imperial College Clinician- Investigator Scholarship and went on to complete a PhD in the National Heart and Lung Institute supervised by Professor Clare Lloyd, Professor Toby Maher and Dr Adam Byrne.
Richard's doctoral research focused on interactions between airway epithelial cells and the microenvironment in the pathogenesis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). For this work he used cell culture techniques, advanced imaging, and proteomic approaches. He worked closely with Anne O'Garra at the Francis Crick Institute where he gained expertise in bulk and single-cell RNA-sequencing of human airway samples.
He is now developing a research programme investigating airway immune dysregulation in interstitial lung abnormalities (ILA) and early pulmonary fibrosis. Through research into early disease mechanisms, he is working towards novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to treat pulmonary fibrosis.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
Vijayakumar B, Boustani K, Ogger P, et al., 2022, Immuno-proteomic profiling reveals aberrant immune cell regulation in the airways of individuals with ongoing post-COVD-19 respiratory disease, Immunity, Vol:55, ISSN:1074-7613, Pages:542-556.e5
McErlean P, Bell CG, Hewitt RJ, et al., 2021, DNA methylome alterations are associated with airway macrophage differentiation and phenotype during lung fibrosis., American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Vol:204, ISSN:1073-449X, Pages:954-966
Hewitt RJ, Lloyd CM, 2021, Regulation of immune responses by the airway epithelial cell landscape, Nature Reviews Immunology, Vol:21, ISSN:1474-1733, Pages:347-362
Ogger PP, Albers GJ, Hewitt RJ, et al., 2020, Itaconate controls the severity of pulmonary fibrosis, Science Immunology, Vol:5, ISSN:2470-9468, Pages:1-13
Hewitt RJ, Molyneaux PL, 2017, The respiratory microbiome in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis., Ann Transl Med, Vol:5, ISSN:2305-5839