Victoria’s Deakin University and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore have teamed up to conduct research on a new generation cancer drug. The research is under the Indo-Australian Science and Technology Fund. A grant of $2.7 billion project is granted by the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF).

The research focuses on a drug delivery project to target cancer-initiating cells with less side-effects in patients than current treatments under cross border research project between the two countries.

“Our aim is to develop a safe and novel drug delivery system that hits the cancer at its core, and kills the cells responsible for the resistance to current therapies and the recurrence of the disease. The objective is to develop a ‘smart bomb’ that can penetrate the cell and release the drugs within the cells, rather than from the outside, and kills the whole tumour, root and all", Wei Duan, Associate Professor and the project leader and researcher, Deakin’s Medical School told Pharmabiz in an interaction over email.

According to Duan, the success of this project will help take a step forward in significantly improving the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients. This precision-guided cancer therapy will afford reduced side-effects, decreased toxicity to normal cells and increased treatment effectiveness. It also has potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

This project also has potential for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, heart disease and diabetes besides killing cancer at its core. The duration of the project is for 3 years.

IISc was shortlisted among the research centres in the country primarily because it is the sole responsible institution in India for this project. The research is viewed as a first-of-its- kind initiative with India to explore the power of ‘aptamer’ technology for cancer treatment in the country. If successful, it will be suitable in the treatment of all cancers except leukemia, stated Duan.

A total of four researchers representing India and the State of Victoria are part of the study. Therefore two professors from IISc and two professors from Deakin University are the lead researchers in the project. There will be a total of more than 20 researchers participating in this project overall.

By the end of three years, we expect to have an effective "smart bomb" successfully tested in laboratories. The eventual entry into oncology clinics may take five or more years as the standard timeframe to bring a drug from lab into market is 10 years, said Duan.