• Question: How can you help people with cancer with the help of your research??

    Asked by DHerrera to Steven on 10 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Steven Street

      Steven Street answered on 10 Nov 2016:

      Hi DMDDH,

      So I am at the very beginning of the process to find new drugs. First, other scientists will study cancer cells to find targets that could be used for new treatments. Once they have found a suitable target, chemists like myself can begin to make new drugs to attack this target and kill the cancer cells. Once we have a suitable molecule, this can go into clinical trials to be tested on animals and humans. Only once it has passed clinical trials is it allowed to be used to treat patients! this whole process can take 10+ years and cost millions if not billions of pounds. The early stages are much cheaper though!

      So the target that I’m looking at is called a G-quadruplex. It’as found in DNA in various places, but I’m looking at the G-quadruplex in telomeric DNA. If you stabilize this with a small molecule, you stop an enzyme called telomerase from working which could kill over 90% of cancer cells! This is quite an exciting prospect, but I have made around 30 compounds when you typically need thousands before you find the right one for clinical trials!

      Basically I am one person working on a small and specialised area, but possibly, if I’m lucky I could contribute towards a new targeted cancer therapy in 10 years time! it all depends on if i make the right molecules!!

      Steve

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