EDUCATING LEADERS IN PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES SINCE 1886
Straubinger profiled in Academic Pharmacy Now
Published March 2, 2016 This content is archived.
Robert Straubinger, professor, pharmaceutical sciences, was profiled in Academic Pharmacy Now regarding his international, $3.8 million grant to develop personalized, nanoparticle drug-delivery systems for pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers: in the United States, only 7 percent of patients survive five years after diagnosis.
Drugs cannot easily access pancreatic tumors because the tumors have very low blood supply and secrete certain proteins that promote the growth of stroma, collagenous connective tissue that hinders drugs’ access to tumors.
Recent research has identified drug pre-treatments that boost delivery of conventional small-molecule drugs into the tumors by making their blood vessels more leaky.
But now an international partnership led by the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is embarking on research based on a somewhat different principle. Since many of the pharmaceutical agents being studied in this grant already have Food and Drug Administration approval, the strategy, if proven successful, could have a rapid impact on treating pancreatic cancer, the researchers say.
Academic Pharmacy Now is the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy's online news magazine which highlights current issues and events in academic pharmacy.