Richard Moss, MD

Early in my allergy-immunology fellowship, I designed and conducted experiments to investigate inflammation in kids with arthritis; I chose kids with cystic fibrosis as controls. But to my surprise the controls were the more inflamed group. That's the way scientific research can go, and it set me on path to understand inflammation in Cystic Fibrosis and other chronic childhood lung diseases that has lasted to this day. What an amazing and complex story it has turned out to be.

My core belief is that the patient comes first. Everything we do—our research and our educational work—is gathered in service of caring for the patient. Medicine, in its essence, is a calling for people who want to lead a meaningful life. As a clinician, researcher in the lab and at the bedside, and a teacher, I have found that each of those fields of activity has brought me much meaning.

As an Emeritus Professor, these days I mostly teach and conduct translational research, bringing new investigational medicines from the lab to the patient. I guess pay it forward is my mantra. I'm very grateful to Stanford and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the betterment of patients' lives.