Joerg Lahann, Ph.D.

A protein that crosses the blood-brain barrier carries a drug that kills tumor cells and another that activates the immune system

A new nanomedicine that crosses the blood-brain barrier, engages the immune system and kills cancer cells may offer hope for treating the most aggressive form of brain cancer, glioblastoma.

With $2.38 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the medicine will soon be tested in mice at the University of Michigan.

Led by a nano-engineer and neuro-oncology researchers at U-M, the study is the first to test the two drugs together, packaged so that they can be delivered through the bloodstream rather than a hole in the skull. It builds on previous success eliminating cancer in seven out of eight mice by packaging just the immune drug in the protein that crosses the blood-brain barrier so that it could be delivered intravenously. The five-year survival rate for glioblastoma in humans is about 5%… Continue reading.