Explore the Agenda
8.30 Light Breakfast
8:55 am Chairs Opening Remarks
9:00 am The Canary, the Code, and ILAs: Generative AI, a Video Game, and the Future of Lung Disease
- Generative AI is often talked about, but what does it actually look like in lung disease? See the collaboration between OSIC and top AI labs at the University of Edinburgh and UCL/Crick London to investigate generative models, concepts, and progress
- Explore how incidental lung abnormalities (ILAs) may serve as the “canary in the coal mine,” a potential cross-disease signal—offering insights into early changes across multiple pulmonary conditions, not just IPF
- See how OSIC is rethinking traditional research models—using a video game to engage diverse contributors in annotating ILAs and advancing early detection.
9:30 am Designing Feasible, Efficient & Effective Clinical Trials in an Era of Expanding Treatment Options
- Explore challenges in patient recruitment, including identifying patients still at risk of disease progression despite SOC treatment
- Optimize inclusion/exclusion criteria and trial design to ensure feasibility while maintaining clinical relevance in a rapidly evolving treatment landscape
- Examine how study design and statistical analyses must adjust for background therapy’s impact on FVC decline, hospitalization rates, and mortality
10:30 am Morning Break
Track 1: Emerging Biology & Early Translation
Assessing Repair & Regeneration: A New Era or the Next Clinical Trap?
11:00 am Deep Diving into the Biology of Pulmonary Fibrosis: Where Does Repair, Regeneration & Remodeling Play a Role?
- Examining key cell types involved in fibrosis progression and their role in repair and regeneration
- Identifying where in the disease process intervention could drive meaningful tissue repair and prevent irreversible damage
- Exploring emerging strategies in cell therapy, regenerative medicine, and molecular targets to restore lung function
11:30 am Promoting Tissue Regeneration Through Modulation of AT2 Receptor Pathway
- Harnessing the AT2 receptor pathway to drive lung tissue repair and counteract fibrotic remodeling in pulmonary diseases, a distinct mechanism from conventional antifibrotics
- Exploring the regenerative potential of C21, an AT2R agonist, to restore alveolar epithelial function and promote vascular integrity
- Advancing a new class of regenerative therapies by targeting endogenous repair pathways, with a focus on improving clinical outcomes through enhanced lung function, symptom relief, and disease modification.
12:00 pm Exploring Elimination of Senescent Cells Through Activation of Endogenous Immune Surveillance Mechanism
- Investigating the role of tissue-resident immune cells in identifying and clearing senescent cells implicated in pulmonary fibrosis progression
- Evaluating Deciduous Therapeutics’ novel strategy to restore immune surveillance as a therapeutic approach to halt or reverse fibrotic remodeling.
- Highlighting preclinical data supporting immune modulation over direct senolytic strategies to improve safety, selectivity, and long-term efficacy in IPF
Track 2: Late Translation & Clinical
Innovations in Clinical Development
11:00 am Redefining Cough in IPF: Central Mechanisms, Patient Impact & Therapeutic Opportunity
- Exploring refractory chronic cough as a distinct clinical burden in IPF and ILDs: what are we missing in current trial designs?
- Is cough the “itch of the lung”? Drawing translational parallels between chronic cough and other hypersensitization syndromes like atopic dermatitis
- Mechanistic insights: The role of centrally acting, unscheduled opioid receptor modulators in treating IPF-related cough versus peripherally targeted approaches
- Clinical considerations in trial design, endpoint selection, and measuring meaningful improvement for patients living with IPF-related chronic cough
11:30 am Uniting Voices: Harnessing Patient Advocacy to Enhance Clinical Trials
- Brief overview of the importance of patient-centered clinical trials and role of patient advocacy
- Role of patient organizations in clinical trial design and implementation
- How to gather meaningful data for both patients and clinicians by conducting patient interviews
12:00 pm How Can the Evolution of Trials & Guidelines in Pulmonary Hypertension Inform Future Efforts in IPF/ILD?
- Lessons from the evolution of endpoints in PH trials: from 6-minute walk test to composite and patient-centric outcomes
- Applicability of combination and sequential therapy strategies in IPF/ILD clinical development
- How changes in PH guidelines have influenced trial design – and what that could mean for future IPF/ILD guidance
12:30 pm Lunch Break
1:30 pm Reprogramming of Senescent Cells Through Harnessing RNA Biology
- SENISCA have discovered a new and druggable cause of cellular ageing, dysregulated mRNA processing
- We have designed an RNA therapeutic with a unique MoA capable of restoring levels of splicing regulators back within their homeostatic limits for selective reprogramming of senescent cells
- We have demonstrated efficacy for our new approach in primary human IPF patient cells and in precision cut lung slices from patients with IPF and other interstitial fibrosis disorders
2:00 pm Panel Discussion: Exploring the Feasibility and Future of Lung Regeneration in IPF: Challenges, Opportunities, and Emerging Therapies
Panel Discussion Points:
- Is complete lung regeneration achievable, or is the primary goal to halt further tissue damage and improve function in IPF?
- What are the potential risks (e.g., tumorigenesis, stem cell activation) versus the promising benefits of regenerative therapies?
- Which biomarkers are crucial to track and validate the success of regenerative approaches in IPF?
- How can insights from tissue engineering, oncology, and other regenerative medicine areas inform and advance lung regeneration therapies for IPF?
- Which regenerative approaches are showing real potential for recovery versus those focusing on disease modification in the IPF treatment landscape?
1:30 pm Redefining the Diagnostic Landscape: Early Detection of ILD & the Clinical Relevance of ILA
- Clarifying the distinction between ILA and early-stage ILD to inform diagnosis and management
- Predicting progression to ILD using imaging, exposure history, and autoimmune features
- Establishing early detection infrastructure through dedicated ILA clinics and surveillance strategies
2:00 pm Collaborative Acceleration: PROLIFIC Consortium Update on Advancing PF Research Through Real-World Data & Biomarker Integration
- Explore how the PROLIFIC Consortium is leveraging longitudinal clinical data and biosamples across diverse care settings to refine our understanding of pulmonary fibrosis progression and treatment outcomes
- Get the latest updates on multi-center efforts to identify, validate, and implement biomarkers that can predict progression, inform trial design, and personalize care
- Understand how this industry-funded initiative is creating a robust framework to support open science, harmonized data collection, and future clinical trials by bringing together academic centers, biobanks, and industry partners
2:30 pm Afternoon Break
3:00 pm Targeting Pro-Fibrotic Macrophage Signatures & CCN Biology: Translating Preclinical Insights into a Next-Gen IPF Therapeutic
- Highlighting precision-cut lung slices and airway basal cell bronchosphere assays as predictive tools for translational validation
- Demonstrating modulation of pro-fibrotic macrophage markers in human-derived systems in collaboration with FibroFind and Antiverse
- Exploring the therapeutic rationale behind targeting CCN signaling pathways in the context of previous setbacks and renewed opportunities in IPF
3:20 pm Targeting the Upstream Pro-Fibrotic Amplifier S100A4: A Differentiated Approach to Treating IPF
- Addressing the complexity of IPF pathogenesis: Mechanistic rationale for targeting S100A4 in fibrosis – an evolutionary conserved amplifier of inflammation and persistent fibrogenesis
- Impact of S100A4 suppression across preclinical and translational assays of fibrosis and inflammation
- Introducing CAL101: A first-in-class anti-S100A4 mAb being evaluated in IPF patients in the phase 2 AURORA study
3:40 pm Exploring a Novel TGF-β Pathway Modulator
- GTX-11, an orally available TGF-β pathway modulator, has shown potent anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory, and vascular-protective effects across multiple preclinical models, including bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, patient-derived fibroblasts, and precision-cut lung slices (PCLS)
- With an excellent preclinical safety and toxicology profile, GTX-11 effectively reduces SMAD2/3 activation, fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition, and vascular dysfunction, positioning it as a promising therapeutic candidate
- Now in Phase I clinical trials, GTX-11 represents a promising new approach for treating fibrotic interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), offering potential advantages over existing therapies