Cancer and Infectious Diseases

Through interdisciplinary collaborations, the cluster aims at discovery and optimization of anticancer and/or antimicrobial lead compounds that combat emerging multidrug resistance. These are validated by in vitro and in vivo models. Our mission is to:

• Design peptides/peptidomimetics and small molecules that combat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections and identify novel targets

• Develop and apply cutting-edge technologies for identification of natural products with potential as antibiotics and chemotherapeutic leads

• Explore and validate novel anticancer compounds and targets

2021-10-18

In a collaborative study led by Jan Stenvang and Dan Staerk, a natural product isolated from the Australian desert plant Eremophila galeata was shown to inhibit the Breast Cancer Resistance Pump (BCRP) involved in multidrug resistance. Docking studies show that the isolated compound binds to the same BCRP site as the active metabolite of the natural product-derived irinotecan, and this discovery opens up for design of new drug leads for reversal of BCRP-mediated multidrug resistance.