Post by Khumbu

Khumbu and Helmholtz Munich start joint program on COPD Khumbu is starting a research collaboration with Prof. Dr. Oender Yildirim, Director of the Institute of Lung Health and Immunity at Helmholtz Munich. The joint program develops a new therapeutic approach to COPD, with the goal of stopping the disease and enabling the lung to regenerate. COPD is among the deadliest diseases in the world. About 213 million people are affected globally, and roughly 3.7 million die from it each year. The WHO expects it to be among the three leading causes of death worldwide by 2030. Every approved therapy today manages symptoms while the disease continues to progress. None stops it, and none restores what has been lost. The scientific foundation of the program is the work of Yildirim’s group, which decoded a key molecular pathway driving lung destruction in COPD. In mouse models, engaging this pathway regenerated lung tissue even under continued exposure to cigarette smoke. The biological route to an innovative curative COPD therapy is therefore established. Khumbu and Helmholtz Munich will now join forces to co‑develop drug candidates that effectively target this pathway. Khumbu takes over the full molecular design, developing novel drug candidates from scratch with its World Model for Molecular Biology. Yildirim’s lab evaluates the selected compounds in its advanced disease models, closing a tight loop between computational design and biological validation. If successful, the program would represent a turning point in the treatment of COPD.