Rice-led research to develop first regenerative therapy for lymphedema receives up to $18.2M federal award

RBL LLC biotechnology startup SteerBio to drive clinical development and commercialization

HOUSTON, March 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ --A team of researchers led by Rice University bioengineer Omid Veiseh has been awarded $18.2 million in funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to develop a first-of-its-kind regenerative treatment aimed at restoring damaged lymphatic vessels and potentially curing lymphedema, a condition that affects more than 10 million Americans.

The award supports the agency's Groundbreaking Lymphatic Interventions and Drug Exploration program, known as GLIDE, led by ARPA-H Program Manager Kimberley Steele, MD. GLIDE "aims to advance lymphatic medicine, improve our understanding of the role of lymphatic dysfunction in disease, and build effective, affordable, and accessible treatment options," according to the program website. 

"As a surgeon, I was trained to fix what I could see — but I was never taught about the one system that connects everything. As a rare disease parent, I've lived the heartbreak of watching someone you love suffer while medicine has no answers. And now, as an ARPA-H Program Manager, I get to help change that story for millions of families," Steele said in an agency press release.

"Advancing human health requires not just discovery, but also collaboration, persistence and a willingness to rethink what is possible," said Amy Dittmar, the Howard. R Hughes Provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. "This project demonstrates our commitment to pair fundamental research with a clear path toward improving patient outcomes. We are proud to support faculty who are redefining the future of medicine and commend the research team for their achievement."

Millions of Americans live with chronic and rare diseases tied to problems in the lymphatic system — a critical but often overlooked network of vessels that helps regulate fluid balance and immune function. Lymphatic disorders are progressive and sometimes life-threatening. Current treatments focus on symptom management, including compression garments and manual drainage. There are no approved therapies that repair damaged lymphatic vessels or restore normal function.

The research project benefits from a unique translational infrastructure, including RBL LLC, a pioneering biotech venture creation studio dedicated to rapidly building companies based on breakthrough medical technologies, and the Rice Biotechnology Launch Pad, a biotech accelerator dedicated to bridging the gap between academic research and clinical application.

RBL portfolio company SteerBio, Inc., is leading the development and commercialization effort. SteerBio is led by Martha Fowler, CEO and co-founder, alongside Veiseh, who is scientific co-founder, and clinical collaborators Edward Chang, MD, professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Ionela Iacobas, MD, Medical Director of the Vascular Anomalies Center and director of the Vascular Anomalies Program at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine.

"People affected by lymphedema have no other option than lifelong supportive management," said Veiseh, a professor of bioengineering at Rice, a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas Scholar and director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad. "Our goal is to change that by developing a one-time injectable treatment that gets to the root cause of the disease."

Veiseh and his team will develop a programmable regenerative therapy called Eliminating Lymphatic Irregularities by Cross-disciplinary Intelligent Regulation, or ELIXIR, which is designed to rebuild broken lymphatic vessels.

The treatment will use a minimally invasive, subcutaneous injection to deliver engineered human retinal pigment epithelial cells — which are already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating degenerative eye disease — encased in a protective hydrogel. The hydrogel shields the cells from immune attack while allowing them to function. Inside the cells are engineered genetic circuits that produce therapeutic proteins to stimulate vessel repair.

The genetic circuits can only be activated by small-molecule regulators, giving physicians control over when and how much therapeutic protein is produced. The approach enables sustained, localized treatment and is designed to be administered as a one-time outpatient procedure rather than a lifelong regimen.

Initial preclinical testing has showed 100% vessel regrowth towards healthy lymph nodes and 80% edema reduction, with testing currently underway in large animal models.

"By targeting the structural damage that causes lymphedema, the therapy aims to restore lymphatic function instead of managing swelling and related conditions," Veiseh said. "This award reflects ARPA-H's bold vision to tackle diseases at their root. We are building a scalable, affordable platform that could redefine the standard of care for lymphedema and open the door to a new era in lymphatic medicine. Beyond lymphedema, the technology could establish proof of concept for programmable living therapies that treat other structural and immune-related diseases."

Lymphedema can develop because of inherited conditions or as a result of cancer treatment. Patients often experience chronic swelling, tissue thickening, infections and reduced mobility. Annual care costs run into the billions of dollars nationally.

Projected costs for the ELIXIR platform range between $5000 and $10000 per individual patient as a one-time treatment, which represents less than half the current annual cost of managing lymphedema.

Over five years, the research team will advance the therapy from preclinical testing in animal models to a first in-human feasibility trial. Success will be measured by restored lymphatic function and clearance for an Investigational New Drug application with the FDA.

Private investment will complement federal funding to support manufacturing, regulatory alignment and broader patient access. Clinical collaborations with Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine and UT MD Anderson will play a critical role in the platform's translation process.

Additional co-investigators on the project include Oleg Igoshin, professor of bioengineering and biosciences at Rice; Ahmad Khalil, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University; Edward Fei Chang, MD; Ashleigh Francis, assistant professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery at UT MD Anderson; Jonathan Rivnay, Jerome B. Cohen Professor in Engineering at Northwestern University; Susan Drapeau, bioengineering adjunct faculty at Rice and senior principal, Dark Horse Consulting Group Inc.

This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes' exclusive list of "New Ivies."

Chris Stipes
713-348-6778
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Silvia Cernea Clark
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SOURCE Rice University