Research

Anti-Cancer Gold Complexes

The specific gold-sulfur binding interaction renders gold complexes to be promising anti-cancer agents that can potentially overcome cisplatin resistance; while their unbiased binding towards non-tumoral off-target thiol-proteins has posed a big hurdle to clinical application. Our lab is focused on using new strategies to control the thiol reactivity of gold complexes, aiming to achieve high anti-tumor activity with low side effects.

Metalloimmunotherapy

Metallodrugs are usually considered to directly kill cancer cells. However, recent research has shown that certain cytotoxic metal complexes, such as oxaliplatin, could induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) by activating innate and adaptive immune responses. The tumour-specific immune responses evoked by ICD inducers endow a ‘‘second hit’’ to the residual cancer cells which were not killed by the original drug cytotoxicity. As a result, a long-term therapeutic benefit from ICD may be possible. We are spending efforts to gain a better understanding on the mechanism of ICD so that to design more potent ICD inducers.