Further studies would be needed to establish which cell types in the lung of COPD patients are responsible for increased BICD1 expression and defective autophagosome maturation and follow‐up studies in GFP‐LC3 transgenic mice would be required to verify if cardiac glycosides do restore normal levels of autophagy in a COPD model. The gene discussed is BICD1; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.