Tech Spotlight: Discovering Novel Combination Therapeutics Against Cancer

Dr. Tin Tin Su of the University of Colorado and colleagues have developed a novel drug screen to discover and develop novel combination therapeutics for treatment of cancer. This novel three-dimensional technology platform recreates the microenvironment of the cancerous tissue, allowing for the ability to identify small molecules that are synergistic in activity and that preferentially target mutant tissues harboring an oncogenic mutation. The screen has been used to identify several lead candidates for combination therapy; the resulting intellectual property includes both new use of characterized compounds and also novel compositions-of-matter.

This technology uses wildtype and mutant Drosophila, in which the Drosophila mutants carry a mutation in, for example, a checkpoint gene. The wildtype and mutant fruit fly larvae are first exposed to low doses of radiation to induce genotoxic stress, then exposed to libraries of chemical compounds. For survival after genotoxic stress, mutants have an increased need for cell growth than do wildtype. Compounds that arrest development of mutated Drosophila without affecting the viability of wildtype are chosen for further analysis as anti-cancer agents.

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