Indeed, the telomeres of PROFILE IPF cases carrying rare putatively pathogenic variants in RTEL1, PARN, TERC or TERT were 10–15% shorter than the telomeres of the remaining cases in the PROFILE cohort (logistic regression p = 0.004; OR = 0.031; 95% CI: 0.003–0.29) (Fig. 4a; Supplementary Tables 5 and 6). Here, TERC is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.