John Laffey is Professor of Anaesthesia Intensive Care Medicine at the School of Medicine of the National University of Ireland Galway, vice-dean for Research at the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at NUI Galway, and professor of Anesthesia, Critical Care Medicine and Physiology at the University of Toronto. His basic and translational research is focused on acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis. A current focus is on therapeutic potential of cell therapies for the critically ill. He also has a longstanding interest in the effects and mechanisms of action of carbon dioxide in the critically ill.