Michael R. Pinsky, MD was awarded a 5-year renewal of his K24 Mid-Career Investigator Award from the National Heart Blood and Lung Institute of the NIH (HL67181) for his proposal entitled “Clinical applications of heart-lung interactions.” This prestigious award will allow Dr. Pinsky the needed protected time to continue mentoring young clinical investigators in the fields of clinical and translational research for many years to come. The K24 mechanism is meant to support mid-career investigators but the NIH realized that it needed additional support mechanisms for established investigators. So three years ago they modified the application process to allow already funded investigators to re-apply for an additional 5-year grant after their initial support was completed. As a competitive renewal these funds, coupled with Dr. Pinsky’s existing R01 funding on the Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy and NRSA Post-Doctoral Fellowship Training Grant entitled “Experimental therapeutics in critical illness” forms a concentration of basic science, clinical research support and faculty that is central to the academic mission of the department.