David lagares
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Zenon Biotech
Dr. David Lagares is Founder & CEO of Zenon Biotech and co-founder of Mediar Therapeutics, pioneering novel therapies for fibrotic diseases and cancer. With over 15 years of experience across academia and biotech, his work has been instrumental in identifying new molecular targets for fibrosis, originating from his research at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. A former Professor of Medicine and founding Director of the Matrix and Mechanobiology Program at MGH, his research has driven the development of first-in-class “mechano-therapeutics” and senolytics aimed at treating and regenerating fibrotic organs. Dr. Lagares holds a Ph.D. in Medical Research and an Executive MBA from MIT Sloan.
Seminars
Drug development in interstitial lung diseases has traditionally focused on individual conditions such as IPF or connective tissue disease–associated ILD. However, increasing evidence suggests that many ILDs converge on shared fibrotic pathways. As PPF has emerged as a cross-disease construct to enable trial design, this raises a critical question: are we building therapies for diseases, or for fibrosis itself?
Key Discussion Points:
- What is best disease vs phenotype-driven development? Should therapies be developed for individual ILDs, or for fibrotic progression across diseases through constructs like PPF?
- How indication strategy influence trial design from patient stratification, endpoint selection, and the likelihood of detecting meaningful treatment effects
- Navigating the regulatory and commercial realities of broader indications vs disease-specific labels for approval, positioning, and reimbursement
- As shared fibrotic biology becomes clearer, should drug development move toward mechanism-based approaches rather than traditional disease categories?
- Strategies for testing new investigational agents on top of standard-of-care drugs (Nintedanib, Pirfenidone, Nerandomilast), including selecting appropriate patient populations, managing heterogeneity, and adapting inclusion/exclusion criteria to balance scientific rigor with feasibility
- Evaluating potential pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic interactions, predicting additive, synergistic, or antagonistic effects, and translating mechanistic insights from preclinical models into clinical trial design to ensure patient safety while maximizing therapeutic benefit
- Leveraging biomarkers, imaging readouts, and exploratory endpoints to validate mechanism-of-action, identify early signals of efficacy, and design trials that are both regulatory-compliant and clinically meaningful, while learning from existing trials and real-world experience
- Examine how altered extracellular matrix stiffness and fibroblast mechanotransduction drive IPF pathogenesis
- Highlight mechanotherapeutic strategies designed to normalize aberrant cellular mechano-signaling and disrupt fibrotic feedback loops
- Discuss translational implications for developing therapies that not only slow disease but restore lung tissue function and improve patient outcomes.
