The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded a $415,500 Academic Research Enhancement Award (R15) to Keykavous Parang, Pharm.D., Ph.D., and Sun “Coco” Yang, Ph.D., to support their innovative cancer research at Chapman University.

The project develops next-generation peptide-drug conjugates (PDCs) designed to improve the safety and effectiveness of doxorubicin (DOX), a chemotherapy drug commonly used to treat many cancers, particularly breast cancer. While doxorubicin has been a powerful treatment for cancers, its clinical use is often limited by both severe cardiotoxicity and by development of drug resistance in cancer cells. This often causes clinicians to escalate doses for effective therapy, at the expense of causing heart damage and reducing patient quality of life.

Despite extensive research, the safe, effective, and exclusive delivery of DOX to target cells remains elusive. The long-term objective of this proposal is to harness the potential of cyclic- and hybrid cyclic-linear peptide-DOX conjugates to address DOX heart toxicity and combat drug resistance in cancer cells.

Parang and Yang’s research aims to create novel peptide-based delivery systems that target cancer cells selectively, including drug-resistant tumors, while reducing harmful effects such as cell death on healthy heart tissue. By improving drug delivery and minimizing toxicity, their work could help pave the way for safer and more effective chemotherapy options for patients.

Targeted drug delivery represents a promising new approach to cancer therapy. This grant supports the progress of this approach, as well as providing opportunities for students to participate in research.