Centre for Fibrosis Research

Fibrosis is responsible for an estimated 45% of deaths in the UK and other countries of the developed world. The rest of the world is catching up as life expectancy increases, and more people live with long-term conditions. Historically it has been under-researched and so there is enormous unmet clinical need. The Centre for Fibrosis Research at the University of Leicester exists to tackle this head-on.

Fibrosis (scarring) occurs in response to chronic or severe disease activity in any organ of the body, and develops via common pathways. Understanding these common pathways therefore provides the potential to treat multiple long-term conditions that prevent people’s from living life to the full. However medical research is typically siloed in different specialties defined by each organ (heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, liver etc).

The UoL CFR brings together researchers working on fibrosis across multiple organs using a wide range of techniques, to integrate their expertise from the molecular to population levels. Considering fibrosis as a targetable mechanism of disease in its own right, rather than a terminal phase of multiple different diseases, allows us to better define not only the common pathways but to tailor treatments to specific sub-types of disease.