Research into key drivers of fibrosis will be used by a Singapore-funded biotechnology start-up, Enleofen Bio, to possibly develop first-in-class therapeutics for pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and other fibrosis-related diseases.

The intellectual property that came from the work performed at two Singapore institutions, Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS) and National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS), was licensed to Enleofen Bio.

In their joint work, scientists investigated new genes important for fibrosis in order to better understand the disease’s biology and to potentially discover new drug targets. Besides being evident at high levels on fibroblast cultures, IL-11 was found by the researchers to be an important player in collagen deposition and fibroblast activation, two features of fibrotic processes.

Moving such bench findings into clinical work was encouraged and supported by Duke-NUS, NHCS and the National Health Innovation Centre of Singapore to support the research and assist in the development of therapeutic applications with a commercial use.