Primary human airway epithelial cells provide an important model system for studying the biology of asthma and other common human diseases. It has been challenging to identify the role of specific genes in this system. Now two postdoctoral fellows from the Erle lab, KD Koh and Dan Cheng, working with Sana Siddiqui, a postoc from Prescott Woodruff's lab, have developed methods for efficient gene targeting in these cells. Using a virus- and plasmid-free method for direct delivery of single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) and Cas9 protein by electroporation, the group was able to achieve near-complete deletion of target genes. As a demonstration of the utility of this approach, KD, Sana, and Dan showed that targeting the ket goblet cell transcription factor completed prevented changes in mucus production, organization, and function after treatment with interleukin-13, a key asthma mediator. Walter Eckalbar along with Lorna Zlock and Iris Sun from Walt Finkbeiner's lab also made important contributions. A preprint describing the work is now available on Biorxiv, and the work has recently been accepted for publication in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.