Research

The overarching goal of our research is to design and engineer nanoscale drugs for the therapy of cancer. This involves 1. the investigation of fundamental mechanisms in cancer, 2. engineering synthetic drugs with superior specificity and efficacy and 3. appropriate drug delivery through improved carrier systems.

Recombinant targeted fusion proteins have been generated that selectively target cells in malignant tumors or vascular disease and deliver effectors which act on angiogenesis, metastasis or tumor growth. Nanoparticle based drug delivery has been applied to enhance antitumor activity of drugs acting on the vasculature. See Publications.

One of our focuses is the investigation of tumor initiating cells (“cancer stem cells”) and their role for tumor propagation and relapse, particularly in breast cancer. See Funded Projects.