ERS | monograph Guest Editors Michael J. Cox Michael J. Cox is a microbial ecologist and postdoctoral research associate in the Genomic Medicine section of the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London (London, UK). He trained in the marine microbial ecology of atmospheric trace gases at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) and Plymouth Marine Laboratory (Plymouth, UK) in 2005, following this with work on marine polysaccharide degrading bacteria at the University of Liverpool (Liverpool, UK). In 2008, he moved to the University of California San Francisco (San Francisco, CA, USA) as a visiting research fellow on the microbial ecology of CF, returning to the UK and Imperial College London in 2010. Here he has established the microbiome sequencing pipelines at the National Heart and Lung Institute and works on applying microbial ecology techniques to understanding the respiratory microbiome in chronic and acute respiratory diseases. He is a co-director of the recently established Microbiome@Imperial network, an editor at FEMS Microbiology Letters, a member of the Society for Applied Microbiology and is active in public engagement, and equality and diversity, establishing www.shenotespeaker.org to promote the visibility of women in respiratory, cardiology, vascular and critical care research. Markus J. Ege Markus Ege is a professor of clinical respiratory epidemiology at LMU Munich (Munich, Germany). He trained as paediatrician and epidemiologist at the universities in Ulm (Germany) and Munich. His major research interest is the environmental determinants of childhood asthma and allergies, and their interaction with genetic background. He has worked on asthma and allergy protective effects through bacterial and fungal exposure, with particular focus on the farming environment. Copyright ©ERS 2019. Print ISBN: 978-1-84984-101-6. Online ISBN: 978-1-84984-102-3. Print ISSN: 2312-508X. Online ISSN: 2312-5098. https://doi.org/10.1183/2312508X.10009619 vii