Panel & Audience Discussion: Where Will the Next Wave of Fibrosis Targets Come From?
1:30 pm - Thursday 1st October 2026
Despite decades of research, therapeutic development for IPF and progressive pulmonary fibrosis remains constrained by limited target diversity and high clinical attrition. With advances in single-cell technologies, imaging, and human tissue models, the field is rethinking how to discover and validate the next generation of fibrosis targets.
Discussion Topics Include:
- Reassessing Historical Pathways: Revisiting canonical mechanisms such as TGF-β signaling, integrins, and inflammatory mediators, what have we learned, and do these pathways still hold untapped therapeutic potential?
- Emerging Target Opportunities: Exploring epithelial repair, fibroblast heterogeneity, immune modulation, and regenerative biology as potential avenues for next-generation interventions.
- Bridging Preclinical Insights to Clinical Readouts: How preclinical findings and cellular-level insights can guide trial design, biomarker selection, and patient stratification; challenges of relying solely on lung function endpoints (FEV/FVC); and leveraging multi-omics, spatial biology, and imaging technologies to accelerate target validation and predict meaningful clinical outcomes.
- Forward-Looking Questions: Which cellular or molecular readouts best predict clinical efficacy? Can we design trials focused on fibrosis biology rather than aggregated lung function metrics? How can new technologies inform both target discovery and endpoint selection for more translatable therapies?
