Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the Western world. It can be divided into melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer. Consequently there is an increasing demand for methods for efficient treatment of skin cancer. The advances in genetics and molecular biology have made available a large body of new information on the molecular mechanisms governing tumor formation and malignant progression. Our research group has been working on uncovering molecules important for both skin cancer formation and progression.
Gene therapy affects in most cases too few cells to be useful.
Protein therapy can thus far be applied only for the few select cases where the therapeutic agent represents an extracellular ligand. The goal of the current project is to develop novel biotherapeutics for cancer. The foreseen deliverables of the project are prototypes of new anti-cancer drugs that feature high degree of selectivity combined with efficient delivery.