ProfessorPeter Rutledge

Project Opportunities

Title: 'Magic Bullet' Cancer Drugs and Antibiotics

Summary of opportunity:

We are building new kinds of cancer drugs and antibiotics: molecules that change their behaviour in the presence of their biological target, being chemically activated only when they bind their biomolecular target. In parallel projects we are developing

(i) new compounds to be activated by interactions with cancer cells (enabling new detection methods for cancer, and new anti-cancer agents); and

(ii) new antibacterial agents activated by the enzymes that impart antibiotic resistance to bacteria (giving 'resistance-activated' antibiotics).

Opportunity synopsis:

This project combines organic synthesis with coordination chemistry and protein chemistry to develop new drugs that target bacterial infection and cancerous cells. Using organic chemistry (macrocycle synthesis, peptide chemistry and the copper-catalysed azide/alkyne cycloaddition reaction) we will assemble structures in which a macrocyclic core (e.g. cyclam, cyclen, TACN) is appended to the biomolecular ligand. A metal ion coordinated by the macrocycle is silenced when the biomolecular ligand also coordinates, but when this ligand meets its macromolecular target, the ligand target interaction unmasks the metal and initiates new reactivity at the metal centre. Harnessing this new reactivity to achieve a selective cytotoxic response is the aim of this project.