Francesca Polverino, MD, PhD

Francesca Polverino, MD, PhD, is a tenured, endowed Lester and Sue Smith Professor in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, where she also leads a translational research program focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Dr Polverino is a physician-investigator specializing in respiratory diseases. She developed an interest in COPD during medical school, which has continued to the present. She completed a research fellowship in lung immunology and pathology at the University of Padua in Italy, followed by a research and clinical fellowship to further investigate the impact of cigarette smoke on lung immunity, with a particular focus on autoimmunity in COPD, at the Hospital Universitario Son Dureta in Mallorca, Spain. In 2011, Dr Polverino completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, where she described the B-cell responses underlying the onset and progression of lung cancer and COPD, generated the first nonhuman primate model of cigarette smoke–induced COPD, and demonstrated anti-inflammatory activities for CC16 in response to cigarette smoking. In 2018, Dr Polverino transitioned to the University of Arizona, where she established and led a COPD research group, followed by a move to Baylor College of Medicine in 2022 to lead a translational research program focused on cigarette smoke–induced lung diseases, including COPD and lung cancer.

She is currently serving as a section editor for COPD for the European Respiratory Journal. Additionally, Dr Polverino has served on several US Department of Defense, American Lung Association, and National Institutes of Health study sections, including the Infectious Diseases, Reproductive Health, Asthma, and Pulmonary Conditions Study Section, and she is currently a standing member of the Pulmonary Injury, Repair, and Remodeling Study Section. Dr Polverino also serves as a national medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association and is member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee for the COPD Foundation. She regularly speaks at national and international conferences, and she has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals that include JAMA and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Dr Polverino has received numerous awards and honors throughout her career, including the American Thoracic Society Rising Star of Research Award in 2018, the Medal of Honor for Scientific Merits from the Presidency of Italian Republic in 2019, the prestigious European Respiratory Society COPD GOLD Medal in 2022, the American Thoracic Society Parker B Francis Award in 2023, and the Brazilian Respiratory Society Outstanding Woman in Pulmonary Medicine designation in 2024.