Francesco Bonella is Professor of Medicine and Head of the Center for Interstitial and Rare Lung Disease at the Ruhrlandklinik University Hospital in Essen, Germany. His research interests include sarcoidosis, IPF, autoimmune ILD, and pulmonary alveolar proteinosis with a special focus on biomarkers, genetic predisposition, and applications of bronchoalveolar lavage. He has acted as an investigator for major clinical trials in IPF, sarcoidosis and pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. He is member of the editorial board of European Respiratory Journal and Chest, Associate Editor of Respirology, and Editor in Chief of Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine. He has been actively involved with the European Respiratory Society (ERS) since 2014. He has founded EuPAPNet, the European Network for pulmonary alveolar proteinosis, in 2010 and is Coordinator of the Sarcoidosis Core Network within the European Reference Network ERN-LUNG.