$2.5 Million NCI Grant Funds Smart Exosome Research for Pancreatic Cancer

Dr. Shi-He Liu, Associate Professor in the Department of Cell and Cancer Biology, has received a $2.5 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop a new drug delivery method for pancreatic cancer, which has a five-year survival rate under 13%.

“The problem is not so much about finding a way to kill the cancer cells,” Dr. Liu said. “It’s about finding a way to effectively deliver therapeutic agents to those pancreatic cancer cells.”

The grant funds continued development of genetically engineered “smart exosomes” — nanocarriers designed to home in on pancreatic tumor cells while evading clearance by the immune system — to deliver therapeutics directly to cancer cells that carry specific surface biomarkers. Co-investigators include Dr. Jian-Ting Zhang, professor and chair of the Department of Cell and Cancer Biology, and Dr. Yakov Lapitsky, professor of chemical engineering.

Read the full story in UToledo News: https://news.utoledo.edu/index.php/01_12_2024/novel-approach-to-targeting-pancreatic-cancer-therapies-earns-federal-funding