For example, severe viral respiratory illnesses in early life are associated with development of childhood asthma among subjects carrying risk variants at the 17q21 locus3, which contains multiple genes expressed in the airway epithelium (ORMDL3, GSDMB, GSDMA), although it is unclear through which gene(s) asthma risk is mediated3–5. Here, GSDMB is linked to asthma.