VERSATILE: While other peptides focus on a single type of cancer, the team’s new technology could be used to target at least 11, Chang Gung University’s John Yu said

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 23, 2020
By: Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporter

A team of researchers has developed cancer-targeting peptides that could be used as “guided missiles” to treat various cancers and cancer stem cells without harming normal cells.

The research team last year won the National Innovation Award for its Fn cancer-targeting peptide technology, Chang Gung University Institute of Stem Cell and Translational Cancer Research director John Yu (游正博) told a news conference at the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taipei yesterday.

The team used computer-aided methods and novel scoring algorithms to design cancer-targeting peptides, which can guide various types of therapeutics to cancer cells, said Yu, an expert on stem cells and regenerative medicine.

Some cancer drugs are inefficient and cause painful side effects, because they cannot precisely target cancer cells, he said.    [FULL  STORY]