The development of therapeutic peptides for cancer.

Colorectal cancer is the second most common cancer in women and the third in men. There were 1.8 million new diagnoses in 2018. There is a huge demand to improve conventional therapies and to discover novel ones. This PhD will investigate a novel therapeutic approach using a short peptide, named G3 in our laboratory, for development as a drug carrier. G3 is a short synthetic peptide, modelled on naturally occurring defence peptides and has the ability to selectively enter tumour cells over non-tumourgenic cells and has the potential to be developed as a novel therapy. The cellular and molecular mechanisms have not been established, as to how it operates inside tumour cells. This project is to focus on investigating the potential of G3 as an anticancer agent. The impact that a new drug, such as G3, could have in colorectal cancer therapeutics lies in its avoidance or reduction of uptake and toxicity to normal cells. Potentially, G3 could offer drug delivery, while maintaining tumour selectivity, similar to immune therapy.

Science Graduate School
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