Jaeyul Lee, PhD
Massachusetts General Hospital
Research Project:
Finding a New Way to Predict How Early IPF Progresses in Patients
Grant Awarded:
- Catalyst Award
Research Topics:
- biomarkers
- clinical research
- imaging radiology
- pathology
Research Diseases:
- interstitial lung disease
- pulmonary fibrosis
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a serious disease with a high death rate, but it affects people very differently and doctors currently have no reliable way to predict how it will behave in each person. We plan to study microscopic changes in fibrosis using high-resolution optical imaging as a new way to predict how early IPF will progress in individual patients. In a small study, we found specific patterns in collagen changes that allowed us to create an analytical tool called an optical biomarker for patients with IPF. This marker was able to perfectly predict which patients would die or need a lung transplant within three years. In this project, we will test this biomarker in more patients to see how well it predicts outcomes and track collagen changes over time using repeated imaging. This research could lead to more personalized care for IPF patients and give us new insights into how collagen changes at the microscopic level—something we cannot currently see with other methods.
Catalyst Award, applied under the Dalsemer Award
Page last updated: October 29, 2025
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