Witek| Faculty Fellow Pilot Project

Project Title

Extracellular Vesicles for Delivery of Alternative Splicing Affectors in Breast Cancer

Project Leader

Malgorzata (Maggie) A. Witek, Associate Research Professor, Department of Chemistry

Project Summary

On average, 1 woman out of 8 will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in her lifetime; if that woman carries BRCA1/2 mutation in their genomic DNA, the likelihood of developing breast cancer will increase up to 7 times. We may not change who will be affected by the disease, but we can revolutionize treatments’ methodologies to best serve patients. Proposed research will focus on developing a better way of anti-tumor drug delivery to cancer cells originating from different molecular subtypes of breast cancer. We will use microfluidics to develop a solid-phase base methodology to engineer and modify patients’ own extracellular vesicles to create a novel drug delivery tool. Extracellular vesicles found in blood will be armed with therapeutics and a redesigned surface to recognize and exclusively merge with cancer cells, without affecting healthy ones. This type of targeted delivery of therapies will allow for efficient personalized treatment, cause less side effects for the patient, and ensure the long-term survival of people diagnosed with cancer, including breast cancer.