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Dr. Felix Ratjen is the Division Chief of Paediatric Respiratory Medicine at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. He is also Program Head and Senior Scientist in the Translational Medicine research program at SickKids Research Institute. He is co-leading the CF Centre at SickKids with Christine Bear, another Senior Scientist in the Molecular Medicine Program.

Dr. Ratjen completed a majority of his medical education in Germany, along with a research fellowship at the Children's Hospital in Boston. He is involved in the organizing committees of the major respiratory meetings (American Thoracic Society, European Respiratory Society and the North American CF conference), works on multiple grant review panels is a member of the several editorial boards including the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Thorax, Pediatric Pulmonology Lancet Respiratory Medicine and the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis.

Dr. Ratjen is conducting multiple clinical trials addressing cystic fibrosis lung disease including new therapeutic strategies to target the underlying defect, treatment of airway infections such as first infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, airway inflammation and other important aspects of the disease. While some of these studies are single centre studies within the CF centre at SickKids or in collaboration with the adult centre at St. Michael’s Hospital, many of them include both national and international collaborations with centres in Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia. In addition, he is involved in developing and validating new outcome measures to quantify important aspects of CF lung disease that can be utilized in clinical trials. He also studies other lung diseases and over the recent years has developed an interest in the clinical evaluation of Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), for which he is leading one of the largest dedicated paediatric clinics.

Medical Director, Clinical Research Services
President-Elect, Medical Staff
Interim Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Co-Director, Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program
CF Therapeutics Development Network Center Director
Professor (tenured), Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics
The Tuchman Family Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and the Pediatric Pulmonary Division
National Jewish Health

She has been site primary investigator on more than 60 clinical studies, and national/global primary investigator on 5 clinical trials. She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (2020) and received the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Patient Advisory Roundtable William J. Martin Distinguished Achievement Award (2022).  Her investigator initiated research focuses on the development and evaluation of novel therapies for the treatment of CF, and on the unique health needs of women with CF. She is also investigating the etiology and treatment of bronchiectasis in non-human primates.

She serves on numerous local and national committees including on the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s (CFF) Board of Trustees as the adult CF care center representative, on the CFF’s Clinical Research Advisory Board and Racial Justice Working Group, the CF TDN’s Clinical Research Executive Committee and as Immediate Past Chair of the CF TDN’s Sexual Health, Reproduction and Gender Research Working Group. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. She serves on the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Scientific Grant Review, Awards, and Clinical Problems Programming Committees (Chair 2020-2021). She has co-chaired numerous sessions and given invited lectures at the ATS International Conference, and the North American, European, Israeli, Mexican, Spanish and Australian CF Conferences, as well as at regional CF and pulmonary conferences and national and international veterinary conferences. She is an active member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter CF Board.  

Dr. Taylor-Cousar is a tenured professor of adult and pediatric pulmonary medicine at National Jewish Health (NJH), where she serves as the Medical Director of Clinical Research Services, President-elect of the medical staff, and is co-director of the Adult CF Program and Director of the CF Therapeutics Development Network (TDN) center.  She received her undergraduate degree in human biology from Stanford University in 1993, and completed her doctorate in medicine in 1998, combined residency in internal medicine and pediatrics in 2002, and her combined fellowship in adult and pediatric pulmonary medicine in 2006 at Duke University Medical Center. She obtained her Master of Clinical Science from the University of Colorado in 2015.