Edy Kim, MD, PhD

Research Project:
Targeting LIFR Molecule that Activates Fibroblasts to Improve Lung Fibrosis

Grant Awarded:

Innovation Award

Research Topics:

basic biologic mechanisms
combination therapies experimental therapeutics
immunology immunotherapy

Research Disease:

interstitial lung disease

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is the most common type of lung fibrosis—a type of scarring of the lungs. IPF can cause progressive shortness of breath and death. We need new treatments for IPF, since the median survival is only 5 years. We will study a possible new approach to therapy: targeting a molecule called the LIF receptor (LIFR), which activates cells called fibroblasts that are a key part of the lung scarring. Several clinical trials in IPF that target one fibroblast activator at a time have failed. We propose that, by shutting down LIFR on fibroblasts, we can block the effects of many stimulators of scarring at the same time. We will first study how LIFR activates fibroblasts to cause scarring. Then we will show the feasibility of a new treatment by silencing the LIFR gene in fibroblasts to improve lung fibrosis in a mouse model of IPF. This research will provide the foundation for developing a new treatment for lung fibrosis.

Innovation Award, applied under the Hastings Award

Page last updated: October 29, 2025

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