Respiratory Airway Secretory (RAS) cells, a novel type of cell buried in healthy human lung tissue, discovered recently and the regeneration mechanism observed in these cells could pave the way for new research opportunities that can treat and cure COPD.  dose of hope. Researchers suspect that, compared with healthy lung tissue, the lungs of a COPD patient will have damaged RAS cells. If correct, the damage can be examined as it relates to RAS cell functionality, enabling research that could lead to groundbreaking treatments. Understanding the restorative abilities of RAS cells could lead to reversing inflammatory damage or death of alveoli cells contributing to COPD progression.