To examine the relevance of genes discovered using the C. elegans model to human airway cell biology, we examined expression of FABP-5 (UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot: FABP5_HUMAN, Ensembl transcript ID: ENST00000297258, Ensembl protein id: ENSP00000297258), a human orthologue of lbp-7, in primary human bronchial epithelial cells obtained through bronchial brushings from smokers with (n = 5) or without (n = 4) COPD. The gene discussed is FABP5; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.