As many as 10 million people in the United States live with lymphedema, a chronic condition causing severe, painful swelling of the limbs. Secondary lymphedema occurs when a person’s lymph nodes are damaged, blocked, or impaired. Globally, the most prevalent trigger of secondary lymphedema is mosquito-borne lymphatic filariasis (LF), a neglected tropical disease caused by parasitic worms that threatens more than 650 million people worldwide.
Diagnosing LF can be challenging, as current tools lack specificity and do not allow for patient monitoring. And while current therapies may eliminate the spread of LF, they do not prevent secondary lymphedema.
In a new project led by Donny Hanjaya-Putra, an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, a multi-institutional research team will develop new diagnostic devices and treatments for LF. The project, titled Transforming Lymphatic Disease and Management (TRANSFORM-L), is supported by an inaugural Emerging Health Innovators (EHI) award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), providing up to $1.6 million in funding over three years for the project.
“The ultimate aim of this work is to build a new paradigm for managing lymphedema and other chronic conditions, which will reduce healthcare burdens worldwide while boosting economic productivity,” said Hanjaya-Putra. “Notre Dame has an excellent reputation in working on rare and neglected diseases. I’m grateful to have the opportunity to collaborate with other investigators in the ARPA-H ecosystem. Together, we are capable of advancing novel solutions for health challenges that affect millions of people.”
The ARPA-H EHI initiative was established to recognize early-career investigators who have the potential to address significant gaps in the United States health care system. Notre Dame is one of only three institutions nationwide with faculty members selected for the award’s inaugural cohort, alongside the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
TRANSFORM-L focuses on exosomes—the small vesicles secreted by parasites that allow them to infiltrate the body on a molecular level while remaining undetected by the host’s immune system. The project will identify how these secreted exosomes change the human immune response; develop a rapid, low-cost diagnostic tool to identify asymptomatic cases using molecular markers; and create engineering strategies and utilize machine learning to develop effective antibody boosting therapies against LF.
While LF primarily affects individuals in developing nations, studying how the immune system fails to eliminate these parasites has significant implications for other chronic lymphatic disorders and emerging endemic diseases.
“By investigating how these parasites interact with the lymphatic system, we can better understand the failure points of human immunity,” Hanjaya-Putra said. “This knowledge contributes to the development of novel engineering strategies to treat chronic conditions like lymphedema, which impact millions of Americans.”
Experts from a variety of disciplines and institutions will contribute to TRANSFORM-L. Hanjaya-Putra’s collaborators include Hsueh-Chia Chang, a microfluidics specialist and the Bayer Corporation Professor of Engineering in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; Meenal Datta, an expert in mechano-immunology and the Jane Schoelch DeFlorio Collegiate Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; Yichun Wang, an expert in nanomedicine and the Keating-Crawford Collegiate Professor of Biomolecular Engineering; Brandon Dixon, a lymphatics expert and Woodruff Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Philip Budge, a physician scientist and Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis; and Aopia Bioscience, a Notre Dame spin-out company that will assist with commercialization of TRANSFORM-L’s findings.
Under the EHI initiative, TRANSFORM-L will serve as a bridge between two existing ARPA-H programs for lymphatic disease research: Lymphatic Imaging, Genomics, and pHenotyping Technologies (LIGHT), which focuses on diagnostics, and Groundbreaking Lymphatic Interventions and Drug Exploration (GLIDE), which focuses on therapeutics. LIGHT and GLIDE are led by ARPA-H program manager Kimberley Steele, M.D., Ph.D.
Steele commented, “This work shows how early career researchers can turn innovative science into global health solutions. Because lymphatic filariasis damages the lymphatic system, which is essential for immune function and fluid balance, better ways to detect and treat it can greatly improve lives. Just as importantly, this approach could be adapted for many other infectious and chronic diseases, reflecting the Emerging Health Innovators Initiative’s goal of expanding opportunity and bringing impactful health solutions closer to the communities that need them most.”
Hanjaya-Putra said, “As an emerging investigator, the EHI award will allow me to partner and connect with other experts, companies, and clinicians to bring discoveries to the real world. The award empowers early-career researchers to address the most pressing gaps in our health care system. We are honored to contribute to that mission.”
Originally published at research.nd.edu by Erin Fennessy on June 8, 2026. Photos by Angelic Rose Hubert, Notre Dame Research.