Paolo Spagnolo is an Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Padua (Italy). He received his undergraduate training, his MD and his residency in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Bari (Italy). In 2002 Dr Spagnolo joined the Interstitial Lung Disease Unit of the Royal Brompton Hospital (London) as clinical research fellow under the supervision of Professor Ron du Bois and subsequently as Honorary Consultant. In 2008 he completed his PhD at the Imperial College of London under the supervision of Professor Ron du Bois and Professor Ken Welsh, with a thesis on “Genetic predisposition to clinical phenotypes of sarcoidosis”. Between 2010 and 2013 he was lecturer in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Modena where he joined the Center for Rare Lung Diseases lead by Professor Luca Richeldi. Subsequently, he joined the Medical University Clinic of the Canton Hospital Baselland in Liestal (Switzerland) as Senior Clinical Research Fellow. At present, Dr Spagnolo is Associate Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Sciences, at the University Hospital of Padua. His main research interests include sarcoidosis and interstitial lung disease, with emphasis on genetic predisposition, prediction of disease behaviour and clinical trials of novel therapies. Dr Spagnolo is the author or co-author of approximately 100 journal articles, review articles, editorials and book chapters.