My research efforts relate to 1) evaluation of and intervention for obstructive lung diseases; 2) occupational or environmental lung diseases; and 3) new methods and clinical application of pulmonary function testing.

Mayo Clinic was one of 10 clinical centers for the NHLBI-funded Lung Health Studies. We continue data analysis and publications from those landmark studies. Currently funded studies for which I am investigator or co-investigator include the NHLBI-funded COPD Clinical Research Network, the NHLBI-funded Lung Tissue Research Consortium and several clinical trials of new medications for COPD; the latter are funded by pharmaceutical companies.

As director of the Mayo Clinic Pulmonary Function Laboratories and the Pulmonary Clinical Research Center, I support and facilitate clinical studies of a wider variety of pulmonary conditions, including Mayo Clinic participation in the recently completed National Emphysema Treatment Trial, the NCI-funded Spiral CT Lung Cancer Screening Trial, and the NCI-funded National Lung Screening Trial. We also support numerous intervention studies for interstitial lung diseases.