Fernando D. Martinez, MD
Director, Arizona Respiratory Center
Swift-McNear Professor of Pediatrics
University of Arizona

Dr. Martinez has been the Director of the Arizona Respiratory Center since 1996. During his tenure, the main goal of the Center has been to develop a multidisciplinary, collaborative approach to the study of the factors that determine the development of asthma, sleep disorders, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other chronic respiratory conditions. Under Dr. Martinez' direction, the Arizona Respiratory Center has fostered the integrated work of clinicians, epidemiologists, immunologists, pharmacologists, molecular and cellular biologists, and population geneticists, all centered around the effort to elucidate the mechanisms that determine these complex respiratory diseases, with the purpose of developing new ways to prevent and treat them. In his own work, Dr. Martinez has studied the natural history and risk factors for asthma and other wheezing disorders from birth up to early adult life. In addition, his laboratory has made important contributions to our understanding of the genetic factors that predispose for the development of asthma and allergies. Dr. Martinez is also the Principal Investigator of one of the Centers that are part of the Childhood Asthma Research and Educations (CARE) Network, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. As part of this network, studies are being conducted to determine the factors associated with response to current asthma therapy with the objective of helping pediatricians to choose the therapy that will provide the greatest relief of symptoms and the best possible quality of life for each child with asthma.

Dr. Martinez is a member of the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program that was responsible for the development of the Expert Panel Report: Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Asthma in 1997 and its first revision in 2001. He is now an active participant in the process of developing the new version for these guidelines, which is due in 2006. He is also a member of the FDA Pulmonary-Allergy Drugs Advisory Committee, and the Board of Extramural Advisors of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 1999. He has been continuously funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 1991.