Tandem

Fibrosis represents a significant unmet medical challenge, contributing to over 45% of deaths in the developed world. While current treatments offer some relief by slowing down progression, they fall short of halting or reversing fibrosis and often lead to adverse effects, undermining patient compliance. The excessive and mechanically aberrant extracellular matrix (matrix) serves as a crucial driver of fibrotic progression, yet targeting it safely poses a considerable challenge.

Our immediate goal is to generate preclinical efficacy in mouse and human translational models of lung fibrosis to progress towards nominating a lead candidate for optimization and Investigational New Drug (IND) enabling studies. The outcome of the targeted efficacy in lung fibrosis together with the positive proof-of-concept of the Matrix Targeting Technology in multiple fibrotic disease models would enable expansion of the program into other fibrotic diseases. Our unique approach unlocks the previously inaccessible fibrotic matrix to potentially halt fibrotic progression with minimal systemic toxicity.

The opportunity to safely target the matrix with peptides capable of navigating the dense stromal barrier, easily engineered, and scalable holds promise for impacting various fibrotic organ diseases and fibrotic cancers that have proven intractable to existing treatments.