The interview topics include Dr. Turino’s childhood, college and medical school years, and the research he did after medical school (Class of 1948), in particular, his Korean War service working at the National Research Council where his team created Dextran, a substitute for plasma. He describes his fellowship experiences that started in a cardiopulmonary laboratory, to focus on cardio function, but led to studying lung function. Significant mentions include a fellowship with the NY Heart Association, and his time as an investigator for the City of New York. A collaboration with Ines Mandl, PhD, whose special interest is the elastic tissue of the body, led to investigating mechanisms of lung injury, and this lead to studying alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and desmosine and isodesmosine as biomarkers in COPD.

Dr. Turino relates how he established the James P. Mara Center for Lung Disease, how he became the first John H. Keating Professor of Medicine at the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center (SLR), and his efforts to make SLR a top tier research hospital. He discusses several of the outstanding researchers he recruited to SLR, and his work with several professional organizations. Of particular interest are his accounts of fund raising with American Lung Association and his involvement with the start of promoting asthma research, as well as his current clinical trials with the hyaluronan as a potential therapy for alpha-1 antitrypsin patients.

He touches on family life, wife and children, and their directions in life early in the interview and his recreational choices later in the conversation. Dr. Braun asks his opinion on the merger of St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals, and his vision for the future of medical science.

Significant names or topics mentioned in the interview include: Dr. André Frédéric Cournand; Dr. Dickinson W. Richard; Alfred Fishman; Karl Meyer, MD, PhD; Ines Mandl, PhD; James P. Mara Center for Lung Disease; Jahar Bhattacharya MD, DPhil; Alan Rozanski, MD; David J. Volsky, PhD; Seymour Lieberman; Yong Y. Lin, PhD; AIDS/HIV; American Thoracic Society; Shuren Ma, PhD; hyaluronan; hyaluronic acid; Jerome Cantor; Matrix Therapeutics; Medical Science Institute; Dr. Arthur J. Antenucci.