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Dr. Castro is a Professor of Medicine, Vice Chair for Clinical and Translational Research, Department of Medicine, Chief, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at KUMC, and Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. His translational research projects in the Asthma and Airway Translational Research Unit (AATRU) are focused on the pathogenesis of asthma and health-care delivery issues in asthma. He is the principal investigator on several NIH-sponsored clinical and translational studies, including the Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) Bronchiolitis in Early Life (RBEL) prospective cohort study (R01 HL092486, which seeks to understand the biologic, genetic and immunologic determinants of asthma in infants hospitalized in RSV bronchiolitis and three multi-center grants (NIH and ALA) to evaluate management of asthma in children and adults. He is also the principal investigator on the multi-center study to evaluate airway remodeling in patients with severe asthma as part of the NHLBI Severe Asthma Research Program (U10 HL109257) and precision-driven approaches to therapy (PrecISE, UG1 HL139119). His team has successfully recruited for 4 major asthma clinical trial networks: Childhood Asthma Research and Education (CARE) Network, Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN), AsthmaNet, and American Lung Association (ALA) Airways Clinical Research Centers (ACRC) network. In the Rainbow Clinical and Translation Science Unit (CTSU) at KUMC, Dr. Castro will lead and organize multicenter studies in airways disease with an emphasis on asthma. These multicenter studies have been in NIH- and non-for-profit-funded networks, linked RO1/UO1s, and through studies performed at multiple CTSA sites using innovative and collaborative methods. The AATRU supports the development of junior clinical and translational investigators. The AATRU works closely with industry in the development of Phase I drugs and devices into studies first looking into efficacy (early Phase II). The Asthma and Airways Translational Research Unit (AATRU) has a long track record of successfully recruiting human subjects and carefully characterizing these subjects with physiologic and biologic methods. Furthermore, Dr. Castro received a new training grant for dissemination and implementation science focused on heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders (K12 HL137942) and, over the past 20+ years, Dr. Castro has trained over 40 junior clinical & translational scholars. Dr. Castro has served as President of the ALA of Missouri, Board member of ALA of the Plains-Gulf Region Board and is currently on the national ALA Board. He is the current Chair of the ALA Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Castro has served on the National Asthma Educator Certification Board (2000-2005), St. Louis Regional Asthma Consortium and as Chair for the Allergy Immunology Inflammation Program Committee for the American Thoracic Society. He is the current President of the Board of the International Medical Assistance Foundation.