Various approaches to clinically related research can yield helpful insight. A personal perspective

Attending two recent meetings (the joint American Physician Scientists Association, American Society of Clinical Investigation, and Association of American Physicians meeting and the American Thoracic Society meeting) and listening to state of the art presentations, viewing research posters, and interacting with young scientists about so much new and exciting human research rekindled my thoughts about how one could now begin research. For me this occurred, with excellent mentoring and supervision, as first a descriptive "looking" approach to identify host immunity components in a variety of animal models and then manipulating these models to mimic disease processes, focusing on the respiratory tract and innate immunity. Next, we moved to characterize these host immunity components in normal humans, before applying these to in vitro and clinical illness situations for patients. The intent of this research sequence was to better describe and manipulate immunopathology relevant to disease. A bench-to-patient approach, mostly descriptive and "looking," was the path. I have illustrated these steps with applicable references. Now seems such a crucial time to further scientific knowledge and to foster personalized medicine, despite a period of financial restraint. We need discussion of ways to best approach "looking" for still unknown basic information about the human respiratory system. Two special examples are identifying the still unknown cells in human lung tissue and their functions and manipulating the extensive respiratory microbiome.