A team from Columbia Center for Translational Immunology, leaded by HW Snoeck, has recently published an interesting manuscript in Nature Biotechnology. They have succeeded to develop a  highly efficient method for directed differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into lung and airway epithelial cells.These cells developed basal, goblet, Clara, ciliated, type I and type II alveolar epithelial cells, the last having the capability of surfactant protein-B uptake and stimulated surfactant release. The authors conclude that their methodology could be useful for deriving patient-specific therapeutic cells.