Of particular interest are the recent elegant studies by Daren Knoell’s group [36,37] showing a specific role for another ZIP transporter ZIP8 in mediating uptake of Zn by human airway epithelial cells (primary and BEAS-2B) in response to a pro-inflammatory stimulus TNFα and a role for ZIP8 in maintaining Zn levels in these cells required for epithelial cell monolayer integrity and cell survival as well as roles for ZIP8 in sepsis. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is Sepsis.