William McIver, a medical student at the University of Birmingham, was crowned the winner of the BTS Medical Student Award at the Winter Meeting 2019, for his work on “Sustained impairment of neutrophil migration following acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease”.
COPD Exacerbations are most often caused by bacterial or viral chest infections, but can also be non-infectious. A lot of the damage that occurs in the lungs in COPD is caused by a specific type of white blood cell called a neutrophil. Previous studies shown that more of these neutrophils move to the lung during COPD exacerbations, but are less accurate. Unfortunately, when they target the wrong area they can cause damage instead of fighting infection.
The aim of Mr McIver‘s winning research project was to figure out how neutrophils from patients suffering COPD exacerbations migrated, and if it was different from how they migrate during stable disease.
Mr McIver said: “I cannot thank the BTS enough for my prize. It means a lot because the project the prize was awarded for, which was conducted as part of my intercalated degree, is very close to my heart.
“My year in the lab was truly the best year I have had at medical school, despite being a completely new challenge. I hope that the prize will help me demonstrate my enthusiasm for respiratory medicine when the time comes to apply for specialty training.
“Most of all I need to thank the patients who took part in my project, who did so completely altruistically and for no personal gain. Translational research projects like this rely entirely on patients who are willing to help, and it could not be done without them.”
Congratulations also are in order for the highly commended researchers Muhammad Bukhari of Imperial College London, for his work on Pulmonary Hypertension and to Ravinder Kaur of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the University of Nottingham, for her work on familial pulmonary fibrosis
More on the Medical Student Awards
The prestigious Medical Student Awards are highly competitive and are awarded to the very best basic, translational or clinical research performed in the UK respiratory community by Medical students. Qualifying projects can include clinical audit, quality improvement, systematic review writing or laboratory work.
The prizes are awarded based on the quality and content of the research performed and the quality of the abstract submitted.
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26/02/2026 15:53:45
British Thoracic Society
