To study the role of AECII senescence in IPF, Yao et al. (2021) established a mouse model with a conditional deletion of Sin3a in AECIIs and found that conditionally induced AECII senescence leads to progressive fibrosis and removing senescent AECIIs from the lungs of Sin3a LOF mice prevents progressive fibrosis, suggesting that targeting senescent AECIIs can prevent progressive fibrosis. Here, SIN3A is linked to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.