Combined with the reported success of combined epidermal cell and gene therapy using a γ-retroviral vector carrying LAMB3 cDNA for patients with JEB,15,16,17,18 these data led us to investigate the expansion of primary human airway epithelial cells from patients with EB, with a view to developing a therapy to express the wild-type LAMA3 gene in the airway epithelium. The gene discussed is LAMB3; the disease is epidermolysis bullosa.