This study began in 2002 in the Lung Biology and Toxicology Laboratory at the Oklahoma State University. When asked about the potential implications of the study, Dr. Lin Liu, director of the lab and one of the authors of the study, said, "With the availability of primary alveolar type I cells and the gene expression profile of this cell type, I believe that more novel functions of type I cells in the lung and new therapeutic targets for pulmonary diseases will be discovered in the near future".
The Journal of Physiology