Dysfunctional ERG signaling drives pulmonary vascular aging and persistent fibrosis – Nature Communications

This study discovered that a protein called ETS-related gene (ERG) is critical to the function of blood vessels in the lung, and that ERG becomes dysfunctional with aging, resulting in fibrosis. This finding is exciting because it identifies a potential target for treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that progressively scars the lung, for which there is currently no cure. First author Dr. Nunzia Caporarello was awarded the Lung Association Dalsemer grant for her research in pulmonary fibrosis in 2020.