Genomic analysis has revealed several genetic variants correlated with lung fibrosis, such as surfactant protein C (SPC) (Thomas et al., 2002), MUC5B (Seibold et al., 2011), telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) (Mushiroda et al., 2008; Moore et al., 2019), telomerase RNA component (TERC) (Moore et al., 2019) and regulator of telomere elongation helicase 1 (RTEL1) (Moore et al., 2019). Here, MUC5B is linked to pulmonary fibrosis.