Designer Proteins Trigger Cell Death – a new cancer therapy?
Researchers from the University of Washington and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute use an innovative computational design approach coupled with in-vitro-targeted evolution to produce a potent polypeptide inhibitor that triggers apoptosis of virus-infected cancer cells, suppresses tumor growth, and extends survival in a xenograft model of EBV-positive human lymphoma.
How Designer Proteins Impact Cancer Research
This represents an effort to generate biologically active proteins by de novo computational design. These high-specificity designed proteins that selectively kill target cells may provide an advantage over the current generation of antibody-drug conjugates.