Could innovative AI technology revolutionise cancer treatment?
Co-funded with:
AECC
Cancer types:
General cancer research
Project period:
–
Research institute:
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas (CIB)
Award amount:
£214,335
Location:
Spain
Dr Daniel Lietha is investigating whether cutting-edge AI technology could help us to target and kill cancer cells with more precision than ever before. The technology designs large complex molecules called proteins. It has the potential to revolutionize the way we treat cancer.
Why is this research needed?
Proteins are large molecules essential for life. They have many roles in our cells, from acting as building blocks, to ensuring smooth processing of chemical reactions. Cancer cells often develop changes in proteins that help them to thrive, and many new cancer drugs are designed to very specifically target these changes.
But with current technologies, some are just too complex to be targeted by drugs. Researchers consider these types of proteins ‘undruggable’. This problem severely limits the types of treatments we can develop for cancer. It is also significantly slowing cancer research.
However, Dr Lietha and his team think they can harness a new type of AI technology that will make it possible to target these previously undruggable proteins. This incredible work could allow us to develop cancer treatments that have never before been feasible- opening up a whole new range of possibilities.
I think we are at a turning point, where new technologies can completely change the type of treatments that will be possible, probably already in the near future. We think our project will bring together such revolutionary technologies, which we think will in the future be able to correct any malfunction in cells with very high precision and efficacy.
What is the science behind this project?
Dr Lietha and his team are working with truly groundbreaking AI technology. The technology is able to predict the complex structure of proteins, and then design completely new protein shapes. This is so exciting, that the researchers who developed it actually shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work.
During this project, the team will use the technology to design new protein shapes to target a molecule called focal adhesion kinase (FAK). FAK controls some of the basic processes that keeps a cell going. But in cancer, it can develop changes that make it work too well.
Researchers think that this helps some cancer cells become resistant to treatment. If the team can develop a new protein shape that can successfully target FAK, then it could potentially be used help stop cancer cells developing resistance to treatments.
The team hope to have developed a FAK targeted protein by the end of this project. They then plan to use another brand-new technology, called an mRNA vaccine, to help deliver the protein to cancer cells. This is the same technology that is used in some COVID-19 vaccines, and the researchers who developed this technology also won a 2023 Nobel prize for their work!
What difference could this project make to patients in the future?
Just a few years ago this sort of project was not even possible, and scientists would have called it ‘science fiction’. Now your support is helping cancer researchers to boldly go where no cancer researcher has ever gone before all in the name of developing amazing new cancer treatments for patients.
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