Twenty-five years of airway research: personal thoughts

The airway research presented for 25 years annually at the Transatlantic Airway Conferences is impressive! The imaginative Conference design, the quality of speakers, and the generosity of the sponsor are outstanding. The breadth of the Conferences is too broad for an objective review here. Instead, I offer some subjective thoughts by one who has observed the evolution of modern pulmonology. Pulmonology came late as a specialty. The National Institutes of Health deserves credit for recognizing the increasing importance of lung disease through its funded grants and changing the designation to the Heart and Lung Institute. The combined effect of enthusiastic young investigators and an increasing commitment from what was to become the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provided us pulmonologists with a jump start. Here, I note the importance of the emergence of modern biology in shaping evolving airway research, and our special opportunities because of accessible anatomic features of airways. My presentation of opportunities here in immunology and in signaling may be the result of individual prejudice! Cystic fibrosis was chosen for discussion because of the importance of cloning the cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator gene and the limited novel therapies thus far, with a plea for new ideas. The gene was (brilliantly) cloned 2 decades ago, but insights that give rise to novel life-saving therapies are still lacking. I finish with accolades to those who seek to learn from a variety of sources, including artists; I am proud and grateful that I became an early convert from cardiology to pulmonology. It continues to be an exciting experience.