Our vision for a new type of cancer treatment is based on an implantable therapeutic system capable of ‘programmable’ on-demand delivery of drugs directly to the tumor. We conceive an implantable iontronic switch (bioSWITCH) to enable a spatiotemporally controlled administration of highly potent chemotherapeutics, without the need for systemic administration of (pro)drugs or drug conjugates.
This radically new technology will be realized by a combination of next-level tools: An i) iontronic pump enables electrophoretic transport of a ii) bioorthogonal chemical trigger (T) into a ii) chemogel modified with a iv) click-activatable drug (D) to release chemotherapeutics with electronic precision and full control of the local concentration/time profile. As a result, bioSWITCH can generate previously unobtainable discrete as well as continuous drug concentration profiles at the tumor site, and thus allows for the use of highly potent drugs that are otherwise not applicable due to high cytotoxicity. The goal is to demonstrate the technology’s potential to effectively interfere with tumor progression using a xenograft pancreas cancer mouse model. Efficiently shrinking tumors in size allows for surgical resection of previously non-operable tumors and dramatically increases survival rates. Ultimately, the combination of local drug delivery (space) and chronopharmacological aspects (time) elevates medicine to the 4th dimension and will initiate an evolutionary leap in the field of cancer therapies and medicine by delivering optimized drug doses, precisely tuned to the individual’s chronotype to maximize treatment efficacy while substantially minimizing, if not completely preventing, severe off-target effects.
Our consortium of world leading academics and pioneering SMEs will ensure the translation of this disruptive technology into the market to maximize the socioeconomic impact.
