A novel cell-penetrant delivery platform applied to a pan-Ras targeting anti-cancer therapy

Dr. Roman Melnyk has brought his industry experience from Merck & Co. to his role as a Senior Scientist at SickKids. The Melnyk lab has developed a delivery platform that can transport various cargo into cells for diverse applications, including proteins of therapeutic significance as well as the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing machinery. Ras is a class of GTPase proteins that plays a role in cellular proliferation and differentiation, survival, and gene expression. When the Ras gene is mutated in humans, the resulting proteins are implicated in cancer, causing up to one third of all human cancers. As the developing Ras drugs target a specific Ras mutation, these therapies are only applicable towards 15% of lung cancers and less than 8% of other cancer types. Dr. Melnyk and collaborators have developed a drug targeting all genetic versions of Ras and a compatible novel delivery platform. In vivo work in animal models has shown drug penetration into xenografts and inhibition of tumour growth, exemplifying a successful intracellular delivery platform and a novel therapy for all cancer types.