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Researchers are developing special molecules that stimulate the immune system
Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are the three main therapies used to treat cancerous tumors. The doctoral network “Magicbullet::Reloaded” takes a different approach, in which 15 doctoral students develop special molecules that stimulate the immune system to destroy tumor cells. In a video, network members explain how doctoral students in the network gain valuable experience and research opportunities. Doctoral candidates from organic and medicinal chemistry, tumor biology and pharmacology will conduct research in the network until 2024. The training network consists of nine universities, two research institutions and four pharmaceutical companies in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Finland, Italy and Hungary and is also supported by four other companies. Coordinator…
Researchers are developing special molecules that stimulate the immune system
Surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are the three main therapies used to treat cancerous tumors. The doctoral network “Magicbullet::Reloaded” takes a different approach, in which 15 doctoral students develop special molecules that stimulate the immune system to destroy tumor cells. In a video, network members explain how doctoral students in the network gain valuable experience and research opportunities.
Doctoral candidates from organic and medicinal chemistry, tumor biology and pharmacology will conduct research in the network until 2024. The training network consists of nine universities, two research institutions and four pharmaceutical companies in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Finland, Italy and Hungary and is also supported by four other companies. The coordinator of the network is Professor Dr. Norbert Sewald, chemist at Bielefeld University. The European Union is funding the network with around four million euros. The current video can be viewed here via the network.
To develop these targeted, minimally invasive cancer drugs, Magicbullet::Reloaded researchers attach a substance that can damage tumor tissue to a transporter molecule. The transporter molecules include, for example, small proteins called peptides that recognize molecules that are characteristic of cancer cells. They then bind to these cancer cells and deliver the substance, which then stimulates an immune response in the tumor cells. This approach is intended to help overcome the problem of developing resistance to the very immunotherapies designed to destroy cancer cells.
Antitumor drugs have, so to speak, an address label that indicates which cells they should be delivered to.”
Norbert Sewald, professor and chemist, Bielefeld University
According to Sewald, drugs that work in this way could help make the early vision of Nobel Prize winner Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) a reality. Ehrlich coined the term “miracle weapon” for such targeted active ingredients.
In addition to Bielefeld University, the consortium includes Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland; University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom; the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany; the University of Helsinki in Finland; the University of Insubria in Italy, the University of Milan in Italy and the University of Cologne in Germany.
Since 2019, Magicbullet::Reloaded has been funded as the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network as part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program with a total of around 4 million euros (Grant Agreement No. 861316). The training network is based on Dr. Sewald coordinated research from the innovative training network “Magicbullet,” which ran from 2015 to 2018.
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