About This Project

One of the fundamental weaknesses in cancer treatment or any therapy based at the cellular level is entering the cell. Help us explore a novel method of targeted cell delivery using a mechanism used by clostridium to enter cells. We would like to run a study in which we use recombinant proteins from clostridium and test their effectivity in entering cells. We plan to use this drug delivery system to deliver a CRISPR/Cas9-based nanotherapeutic, already created by our team, into live cells.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

We have created a nanotherapeutic that uses the CRISPR/Cas9 system with the hope of targeting and killing cancer cells, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. This therapy recognizes certain factors inside the cell and will only trigger in a target cell. However, the limitation is that we are still working on editing the nanotherapeutic so that it can enter the cell. We are building off the nanotherapeutic that we have already created. The purpose of this project and the funding is to design an appendage or alter the existing CRISPR/Cas9-based nanotherapeutic, so that it can enter cells. Once it can enter cells, this nanotherapeutic will be fully functional and will be able DNA based therapy that selectively targets and kills cells.

What is the significance of this project?

Each year, cancer causes 7.6 million premature deaths, while viruses cause hundreds of millions. Success of current treatments is sadly limited. Surgery is only effective until metastasis. Chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells so it kills bone marrow cells, immune system cells, and others. Targeted treatments interfere with specific cell receptors that can mutate, neutralizing the therapy; such therapies target protein biomarkers. One promising method is a nanotherapeutic that enters cells, using clostridium proteins, and interferes with DNA via CRISPR/Cas9 system because damaging DNA can induce cell death (the CRISPR/Cas9 portion is already created). We want to find a unique, reliable way to deliver the nanotherapeutic into cells.

What are the goals of the project?

We want to create a novel cell delivery system using specific nonpathogenic proteins from clostridium bacteria. The goal is to attach this cell delivery system with CRISPR/Cas9 based therapeutic, already developed by our team. Our goal is to use this system in order to significantly decrease the costs of precision therapies that only affect the target cells. Our unique delivery system coupled with the already designed CRISPR/Cas9 based nanotherapeutic can be easily and cheaply made using bacteria to create the different components and then later be assembled almost effortlessly into the finished product. Essentially, our goal is to produce a cheap, easily accessible cell targeting system, applicable to a wide range of diseases including cancer and viral diseases.