Our group was the first to show that soluble dimeric ACE2 protects mice from acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (Imai et al, 2005), which triggered preclinical and clinical development of recombinant human soluble ACE2 (Treml et al, 2010; Haschke et al, 2013), termed APN01, for lung disease. The gene discussed is ACE2; the disease is acute respiratory distress syndrome.