Yale School of Medicine (YSM) researchers have made key breakthroughs in understanding how to treat fibrotic diseases such as scleroderma and graft-versus-host disease.

Fibrotic diseases are a group of conditions—often autoimmune—characterized by excessive tissue scarring. They can drastically hinder patients’ quality of life, and in some cases, they can be life-threatening— fibrosis contributes to approximately 45% of all deaths in developed nations. However, there are no effective treatments.

Now, in a study published in Blood, researchers have developed a monoclonal antibody that is showing promise as a new therapy for patients. And in a Nature Communications study, the same team discovered a signaling pathway that may be mediating fibrosis and could be a target for future therapies.