Mesenchymal markers such as N- cadherin, vimentin, collagen I, and fibronectin are significantly upregulated in the native human CF airways compared to non CF airways (Quaresma et al., 2020), and increase CFTR activity using the potent CFTR modulator (HECM) drug restores the mutated CFTR-induced epithelial phenotype and confers direct protection against EMT (Narayanan et al., 2020). Here, VIM is linked to cystic fibrosis.