1. Developing chemically modified, non-anticoagulant heparin derivatives as galectin-3-targeted novel anti-cancer/anti-metastasis drugs Professor Lu-Gang Yu Gastroenterology Unit Institute of Translational Medicine
Research interests:
Carbohydrate-binding proteins (lectins) from endogenous (e.g. galactoside-binding galectins) as well as dietary sources in cancer progression and metastasis
Development of galectin-targeted anti-cancer/anti-metastasis agents
Recent research from our lab as well as others has identified a circulating protein (galectin-3) as an important metastasis promoter in cancer
Several biotech companies have initiated galectin-3 –targeted therapeutic programmes for cancer treatment
Poster T6

2. Chemically modified forms of an existing anti-coagulant drug (heparin) are potent galectin-3 inhibitors and have great potential to be developed as novel, first in class, anti-cancer/anti-metastasis drugs (in collaboration with Prof Jeremy Turnbull, Institute of Integrative Biology)
Heparin: an existing anti-coagulant drug for treatment of thromboembolism with proven safety and efficacy profile
The modified heparin derivatives: inhibit galectin-3-mediated cancer cell activities in vitro and metastasis in vivo in mice; no detectable cytotoxicity and off-target effects
The modified compounds are IP protected: PCT/GB2012/052428, entered into US national phase on 26 March 2014 and European regional phase on 31 March 2014
Poster T6

3. We are looking for: Industrial partners to:
develop this promising class of compounds as novel, first in class anti-metastasis drugs (jointly or by license)
conduct further research on potential effect of these compounds to inhibit primary tumour growth hence for the compounds to be developed as novel anti-cancer drugs
Poster T6