Tracy Hussell, Director of the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research, epitomises excellence in translation of innovative basic scientific concepts into patient benefit. She is at the forefront of successful interactions between academia, industry and the NHS attracting funding for discovery science leading to new therapeutic strategies in a number of areas of clinical unmet need from AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Manchester. Her innovative thinking has led to the concept of structural regulation of innate immunity in health and its prolonged alterations in acute and chronic lung diseases; a concept now being translated into inflammation of the skin, gastrointestinal tract and joint.