Telomere length and prognosis in fibrotic lung disease
Official title: The Prognostic and Predictive Impact of Telomere Length in Fibrotic Interstitial Lung Disease
Funded at Ut Southwestern Medical Center · NIH-11324504 · Data updated 2026-11-12
Researchers will use a blood test that measures telomere length to help predict how people with fibrotic interstitial lung disease may fare and which treatments might work best.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Ut Southwestern Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Dallas, United States) |
| Project start | May 1, 2025 |
| Project end | February 28, 2030 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $704,444 |
| NIH project number | 5R01HL176839-02 |
| Project ID | NIH-11324504 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
People with fibrotic interstitial lung disease who can provide a blood sample and medical records—especially those newly diagnosed or treatment-naïve—are the best fit for this work.
✕Less likely to help
People without fibrotic ILD or those in end-stage or strictly palliative care whose management would not change based on telomere status are unlikely to benefit directly.
What this research studies
If you join, researchers will measure leukocyte (blood) telomere length from patients enrolled across multiple centers. They will compare those telomere measurements, adjusted for age, with how patients' lung function changes over time and with survival. The team will define age-adjusted telomere length thresholds that separate higher-risk from lower-risk patients. They will also study treatment-naïve patients to see whether short telomeres change how people respond to immunosuppressant medications.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could help doctors spot people at higher risk of rapid decline and choose treatments that are better matched to a patient’s biology.
How similar studies have gone: Prior studies have linked short leukocyte telomere length to worse outcomes and to differences in response to immunosuppression, but large multicenter validation across diverse fibrotic ILD types is still limited.
Where this research is happening
-
Ut Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Newton, Chad Alan — Ut Southwestern Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Newton, Chad Alan
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.