  The need to understand how infection spreads to the deep lung was acutely
realized during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2
(SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. The challenge of modeling virus laden aerosol transport
and deposition in the airways, coupled with mucus clearance, and infection
kinetics, became evident. This perspective provides a consolidated view of
coupled one-dimensional physics-based mathematical models to probe multifaceted
aspects of lung physiology. Successes of 1D trumpet models in providing
mechanistic insights into lung function and optimalities are reviewed while
identifying limitations and future directions. Key non-dimensional numbers
defining lung function are reported. The need to quantitatively map various
pathologies on a physics-based parameter space of non-dimensional numbers (a
virtual disease landscape) is noted with an eye on translating modeling to
clinical practice. This could aid in disease diagnosis, get mechanistic
insights into pathologies, and determine patient specific treatment plan. 1D
modeling could be an important tool in developing novel measurement and
analysis platforms that could be deployed at point-of-care.
