Pre-Conference Workshop Day
Workshop A
9:00 am Shining a Spotlight on the Lung Microenvironment to Delve into Cell Type Populations & the Extracellular Matrix
Synopsis
Join the workshop leaders in their back-to-back presentations, discussions, and focus groups and immerse yourself in the lung microenvironment to discuss and dispute the role of different cell type populations. Examine the role of the extracellular matrix in fibrosis and whether therapeutics should be targeting specific cell populations, the extracellular matrix, or, both?
- Looking beyond fibroblasts to the contribution of epithelial cells and the role of macrophages in lung fibrosis to have a clearer understanding of the lung microenvironment
- Is fibrosis really the final common pathway? Recapitulating understanding of the different ways to get to fibrosis and the differences across ILDs
- Turning gene signatures and artificial intelligence biomarkers into translated responses to what’s happening in the cell
- Delving into repair and regeneration and the lung alveoli’s vascular endothelium niche
- Molecular imaging to examine macrophages, epithelial cell receptors, fibroblasts, and the extracellular matrix
- Building a biomarker strategy to uncover what’s happening in the cell to prove mechanism of action
- Uncovering the extent fibrotic tissue effects the drug deposition to navigate inhaled drug delivery
Workshop B
1:00 pm From ILD Risk Factors & Therapeutic Strategies to Clinical Endpoints: Hailing a New Era of Progressive Pulmonary Fibrosis Therapeutics
Synopsis
With the rise in the recognition that patients with different types of ILD are at risk of developing progressive fibrosing ILD it is crucial to understand why a subset of patients develop a progressive and irreversible fibrotic phenotype and what the early vs late drivers of progression are to clinically intervene and develop indisputable and personalized therapeutics. Whilst also exploring and discussing novel phase 3 endpoints in conjunction with FVC, this is your one-stop-shop for the hottest topics in ILD therapeutic development.
- Discussing whether the phenotype occurs in diseases displaying distinct etiologies and biopathologies during initiation and development
- Identifying biomarkers of disease progression to enable patient stratification for personalized medicine
- Understanding the early vs. late drivers of ILD to effectively design future clinical trials that incorporate the PPF wave of thinking
- Navigating genomic and proteomic data to identify a specific drug, or combination, that will be effective for patients
- Harnessing imaging to identify progressive pulmonary fibrosis effectively
- Highlighting the value of imaging and clinical outcomes for ILDs
- Utilizing quantitative HRCT as an efficacy endpoint in the clinical trial settings
- Entering clinical trials using PET scans or imaging for personalized medicine