Dr Ramesh Kurukulaaratchy
BM DM FRCP
Associate Professor, University of Southampton and Honorary Consultant, University Hospital Southampton; Deputy Director The David Hide Asthma & Allergy Research Centre, St Mary’s Hospital, Isle of Wight
Ramesh is Associate Professor and a consultant specialising in severe asthma and allergy. As a clinical epidemiologist, he studies the natural history, phenotyping, endotyping, treatment and prevention of asthma and allergy across the lifecourse.
His other focus is severe asthma and he is Chief Investigator for the Wessex AsThma CoHORT (WATCH) study of difficult asthma. This study has attracted over £1million of research income. He has 98 Medline-cited publications and an H-index of 37. Ramesh is also passionate about teaching and co-leads the UoS Allergic Airways Disease MSC module plus 3rd and 5th year undergraduate Allergy courses.
Landmark publications:
1. Azim A, Freeman A, Lavenu A, Mistry H, Haitchi HM, Newell C, Cheng Y, Thirlwall Y, Harvey M, Barber C, Pontoppidan K, Dennison P, Arshad SH, Djukanovic R, Howarth P, Kurukulaaratchy RJ. New Perspectives on Difficult Asthma; Sex and Age of Asthma-Onset Based Phenotypes. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2020 Jun 13:S2213-2198(20)30594-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2020.05.053.
2. Arshad SH, Hodgekiss C, Holloway JW, Kurukulaaratchy R, Karmaus W, Zhang H, Roberts G. Association of asthma and smoking with lung function impairment in adolescence and early adulthood: the Isle of Wight Birth Cohort Study. Eur Respir J. 2020 Mar 5;55(3):1900477. doi: 10.1183/13993003.00477-2019. Print 2020 Mar.
3. Biagini Myers JM, Schauberger E, He H, Martin LJ, Kroner J, Hill GM, Ryan PH, LeMasters GK, Bernstein DI, Lockey JE, Arshad SH, Kurukulaaratchy R, Khurana Hershey GK. A Pediatric Asthma Risk Score to better predict asthma development in young children. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2019 May;143(5):1803-1810.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2018.09.037. Epub 2018 Dec 13.
4. Zolkipli Z, Roberts G, Cornelius V, Clayton B, Pearson S, Michaelis L, Djukanovic R, Kurukulaaratchy R, Arshad SH. Randomized controlled trial of primary prevention of atopy using house dust mite allergen oral immunotherapy in early childhood. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2015 Jun 12. pii: S0091-6749(15)00654-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jaci.2015.04.045.
5. Kurukulaaratchy RJ, Zhang H, Patil V, Raza A, Karmaus W, Ewart S, Arshad SH. Identifying the heterogeneity of young adult rhinitis through cluster analysis in the Isle of Wight birth cohort. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2015 Jan;135(1):143-50.
6. Venkataraman D, Soto-Ramírez N, Kurukulaaratchy RJ, Holloway JW, Karmaus W, Ewart SL, Arshad SH, Erlewyn-Lajeunesse M. Filaggrin loss-of-function mutations are associated with food allergy in childhood and adolescence. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2014 Oct;134(4):876-882.e4.
7. Raza A, Kurukulaaratchy RJ, Grundy JD, Clayton CB, Mitchell FA, Roberts G, Ewart S, Sadeghnejad A, Arshad SH. What does adolescent undiagnosed wheeze represent? Findings from the Isle of Wight Cohort. Eur Respir J. 2012 Sep;40(3):580-8.
8. Kurukulaaratchy RJ, Fenn M, Matthews S, Arshad SH. Characterisation of atopic and non-atopic wheeze in 10-year old children. Thorax 2004: 59: 563-568.
9. Kurukulaaratchy RJ, Matthews S, Holgate ST, Arshad SH. Predicting persistent disease amongst children who wheeze during early life. Eur Respir J 2003; 22:767-771.
Kurukulaaratchy RJ, Arshad SH, Matthews S, Waterhouse LM. Factors influencing symptom expression in children with bronchial hyper-responsiveness at 10-years. J Allergy Clin Immunol 2003; 112 (2):311-316.
Major grants:
Epigenome-wide association study of childhood asthma: NIH, USA (1 R01 AI121426-01°1): 2017-2022. Co-I. $3,875,019
Epigenetics of severe asthma: NIH, USA (R01 HL114093-06ª1: 2017-2021, Co-I. $3,565,035
LJI Epitope Validation Center: Characterization of epitope-specific T cells responding to food, fungal and inner city allergens (U19): NIH, USA (U19AI135731-01). 2018-2023. Co-I. $93,257
The effect of Dyson air purifier in improving asthma control – a RCT: Dyson UK Ltd. 2018-2021. Co-I. £233,101
Asthma UK – Circulating miRNAs as a diagnostic test for asthma and to identify asthma severity risk. 2020-2023. PI. £208,000
Airway Inflammation and Airway Remodelling in Severe Asthma: NIH/NIAID, USA (AI070535-16). Co-I. 2021-26. $9,640,182
Impact examples:
Research has led to significantly enhanced understanding of the diverse nature of asthma and allergy in general, and severe asthma in particular. This is leading to personalised treatment approaches that can be used in clinical practice. Development of tools for prediction of asthma risk in susceptible children has particularly significant impact potential at an individual patient level.