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When Patricia Sime, M.D., was training, she met a patient with lung scarring, or pulmonary fibrosis, and asked a simple question: How do we treat her?

The answer - "We can give oxygen, but not much else" - stunned her.

Sime, now chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, became determined to find a better answer. She turned to research, exploring what turns a healthy lung into a scarred one.

By establishing that the molecule TGF beta drives the lung disease, Sime helped establish one of the central pathways behind fibrosis - influencing how it is studied and treated around the world. Today, she continues to reshape how pulmonary fibrosis - a disease that slowly takes away the ability to breathe freely as scars build up in the lungs - is understood.

In the United States, roughly 40,000 die from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis each year, and about 250,000 people live with the disease. Sime's work has turned a field with little to offer into one with real hope, including three FDA-approved therapies as the search for a cure continues.

"Patients have more options than they ever had before," she says.

At VCU, Sime has benefitted from working across disciplines - for example, with colleagues who study scarring in the heart and liver - and welcoming patients as her partners.

"They're the center of our team," she says, as their participation in lab work includes meeting researchers and developing a strong connection to the science they're contributing to.

The video below shares the story of an uncommon hero explaining how asking unconventional questions - and combining research, patient care and education under one roof at VCU - allows Sime to help people live better with pulmonary fibrosis and, she hopes, one day live beyond it.

"They know it may not help them," Sime says of her current patients. "But it might help the next person."