To further validate the UKB findings, we utilized the Early COPD cohort as an external validation set and randomly enrolled 576 participants (controls = 309, COPD = 267) for peripheral plasma SERPING1 protein quantification, with 434 participants completing the 3-year follow-up period (Fig. 3a, Supplementary Data 29). The gene discussed is SERPING1; the disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.