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Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan
Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan is an award-winning respiratory physician and early career researcher (PhD completed in August 2025). He leads the severe asthma clinic at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, WA. He is an internationally renowned expert in asthma exacerbations and was invited to deliver the prestigious ‘Clinical Year in Review’ talk at the American Thoracic Society congress in 2025. He was also profiled as a young investigator to watch by the respiratory journal, The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. His high impact work has been cited over 1870 times in the last 5 years, including his work developing the first new treatment for asthma attacks in 50 years. He was awarded the Asthma + Lung UK Young Investigator prize in 2022 alongside other awards from the NIHR UK, European Respiratory Society and the Raine Medical Research Foundation. |
Asthma Australia is proud to support the careers of future asthma researchers!
The 2026 is the winner of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) / Asthma Australia Peter Van Asperen career development grant is Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan.
About the research
This Career Development Grant will allow Dr Ramakrishnan to establish himself as an independent investigator in asthma research.
His proposed work addresses a critical gap in asthma care: the inability to offer highly effective biologic medicines early after asthma diagnosis. In rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, biosimilar medicines have shown to be safe and affordable for use in milder disease. A similar shift is now possible in asthma.
Currently, people with asthma must accumulate years of exacerbations before qualifying for biologic medicine, and their care remains focussed on inhaler adherence, despite strong evidence that adherence to injectable biologics is far superior because consumers experience meaningful symptom control.
