ORMDL3 and asthma: Secondly, although a subset of 17q21 genes have already been implicated in disparate mechanisms of asthma development (e.g., [1] ORMDL3 in sphingolipid homeostasis22,23 and the function of T cells and [2] GSDMB in pyroptosis19,43), our results suggest additional involvement of the locus based on our identification of 24 COA-associated genes across the six tissue types examined, including 12 from the airway, of which six were airway-specific.