With a new SEED grant, School of Pharmacy Professor Seungpyo Hong and collaborators are working to reduce treatment toxicity for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
After years of persistent work in the lab, University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Seungpyo Hong and his collaborators are inching closer to a cure for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a fatal disease that leads to a buildup of scar tissue in the lungs.
“It’s relatively slow, steady progress, but we are getting highly promising results,” says Hong, the Milton J. Henrichs Chair and director of the Wisconsin Center for NanoBioSystems (WisCNano). “I think this is one of the most exciting products that we have developed out of the lab.”
One of the Hong Research Group’s primary objectives is to develop fully biologic nanoparticles for more effective drug delivery, including an inhalable therapy for IPF. This work has recently gained significant momentum: the team filed a provisional patent application covering its lipopeptide nanoparticle platform, and this summer, the project was selected for funding through the State Economic Engagement & Development (SEED) Research Program. Fellow Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Weiping Tang also received a SEED grant and is using the funding to refine antibody-drug conjugates to improve the quality and efficiency of chemotherapy.
The SEED Research Program, which is administered by the Wisconsin Entrepreneurship Hub, supports UW–Madison faculty and staff with ownership in a Wisconsin company to help facilitate commercialization of their research. Hong’s co-principal investigator is Allan Brasier, executive director of the UW Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, and the pair are partners in Quadragenics, Inc., a Madison-based biotech startup.
“We want to make a new treatment method that maximizes the therapeutic index, meaning that we maximize efficacy while minimizing the side effects,” Hong explains. “So that’s going to be the ultimate goal.”
In 2025, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved another treatment for IPF — the first approved in a decade. However, while that medication can slow progression of the disease, it cannot cure it.
By contrast, the Hong and Brasier’s approach reverses tissue damage by inhibiting bromodomain-containing protein 4 (BRD4), which is one of the proteins responsible for triggering fibrosis.
“I think it has a really good potency, but if we want to maximize the therapeutic efficacy, we have to deliver it correctly in a targeted manner,” Hong says.
To do that, the researchers are targeting extracellular matrix, which is overexpressed by fibrotic regions, as well as working to identify other cellular-level targets that are uniquely or overexpressed by fibrotic cells.
In 2021, Hong and Brasier secured another SEED grant to test their compound’s efficacy. Those smaller grants are critical to advancing research to the point where it can qualify for larger federal funds, such as the nearly $11 million grant the team received from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) in 2024.
The DOD grant supports research on the fundamental understanding of pulmonary fibrosis, including what causes it, the biomarkers, and potential molecular targets. But to translate the work to the clinic, researchers need funding for the technology development, and the SEED support helps fill that gap.
“You basically need continuous resources available to make anything happen in research,” Hong notes.
“I think this is one of the most exciting products that we have developed out of the lab.”
—Seungpyo Hong
Hong’s team will use the new SEED funding to further optimize and test its formulation to identify the most promising lead molecule. The technology developed for IPF treatment could have applications for lung cancer and other diseases as well.
“The beauty of this is that it’s so modular,” Hong says of the platform. “So depending on what kind of ligands you use to decorate the surface of nanoparticles, you can design them to target different things. You can apply the same technology to different diseases.”
With continued federal funding support, Hong hopes the research is ready for clinical trials in four to five years. If proven effective in humans, it would likely take investment from a larger pharmaceutical company to bring the treatment to the finish line, Hong said.
“Translation to the clinic is a long process,” Hong says. “But with each grant, we are getting closer.”
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