this lecture will provide an overview of the virtual lung project at unc, which has been active for several years. the goal is to build predictive tools for medical applications, with a major focus on mucus transport. the cystic fibrosis center at unc is the main driver of the project, which grounds our basic science projects in chemistry, mathematics and physics to clinical practice. i will give an overview of basic facts about lung function and dysfunction, and the approaches we have undertaken, including experimental, theoretical and numerical. i will give some detail in the second half of the talk about projects in my research group related to characterization of mucus viscoelastic properties at biologically relevant length and force scales, and to diffusive transport of foreign particles in mucus layers.