SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY MEETS PRECISION MEDICINE: DRUG REPURPOSING FOR BLOOD CANCER PRECISION MEDICINE

Abstract

Optimizing Drug discovery and Translation is one of the key tracks in Global Challenges Annual meeting 2019 and is the critical factor in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 Good Health and Well Being. WHO reports Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally. The aim of the proposal is to establish robust drug screening platform which can identify drugs and drug combinations that are effective in precision medicine for relapsed individual South African Leukemia patients. Here, cancer cell will be either directly analyzed using high-throughput drug screening or single cell drug screening will be performed using flow cytometry /microfluidics to provide datasets on drug sensitivity for individual patientsI. WP1: Establishing the culture setting for CLL/MM and high-throughput drug screening on CLL/MM.II. WP2: “Signaling pathway-only” limited drug screening for CLL/MMIII. WP3: Establishing setting for Precision Microfluidics-driven single cell drug screening; Expected Results are using full-library drug screening results, we will identify effective drugs and drug combinations that inhibit cancer cell proliferation either through cytostatic or cytotoxic effects. These results will provide the basis for identifying effective drug combinations using our predictive analytics, which will be packaged as preclinical information for a precision clinical trial. Thus, we would establish cutting-edge platform that can handle blood cancer and also solid tumor. Using this pipeline, we aim to identify drug combinations that can overcome relapse stage and ultimately provide tailored-specific therapy options for Cancer patients. Our intention is to develop technologies that provide clinically relevant drug combinations information to oncologists within a timeframe of 7 days. The development and validation of the screening pipeline will incorporate the first CSIR platforms for cancer translational research with respect to identifying effective cancer drugs.