With the development of more human cell lines, including primary airway cells (e.g. SCGB1A1-positive cells) (55) at air–liquid interface and/or in a novel organoid culture system (56) with stable expression of dCas9-KRAB or other modified Cas9, the functional roles of genomic regions harboring other SNPs in such chronic lung diseases will be further revealed, which may improve predictions of prognosis and therapeutic strategies. The gene discussed is SCGB1A1; the disease is chronic lung disease.