Physically Optimized Immune Cell Therapy for Fibrotic Disease

Fibrotic diseases, including those affecting the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and skin, negatively impact millions of people in the United States each year, yet effective therapies remain extremely limited. Across organs, fibrosis arises from chronic injury or inflammation that  leads to progressive scarring and tissue stiffening that interferes with normal organ function. Current treatment options are largely palliative, aiming to slow disease progression or manage symptoms rather than address the underlying mechanisms driving dysfunction. Here, the team proposes to develop and test a novel immune-based therapy using therapeutic T immune cells that are dually engineered to better navigate dense fibrotic tissue and target cells  responsible for producing it.The goal is to develop more effective treatments for a wide range of fibrotic diseases.