Nikolaus Kneidinger is head of the department of respiratory medicine at the Medical University of Graz and head of a research group with broad interest in interstitial lung diseases and lung transplantation at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich. Right after finishing medical school in Vienna, Austria in 2008, Dr. Kneidinger started his scientific career in the graduate program “Molecular Biology and Medicine of the Lung” at the University Lung Center Giessen, Germany. After that he trained in clinical respiratory medicine at the university hospital of Munich. Since the department has a strong focus on lung transplantation, he took the opportunity to get involved in the exiting field of organ replacement. In 2018 Dr. Kneidinger became head of the lung transplant program, which is one of the largest worldwide, performing approximately 80 transplants per year. Together with his research group, Dr. Kneidinger had the chance to contribute to several topics in the journey of lung transplantation, from candidate selection, immunosuppressive regimens to long-term outcome of transplant recipients.