Synthetic Folates for Drug Delivery

Folate, also known as vitamin B9, is of paramount importance for a cell's growth and survival as its biochemistry underpins several anabolic processes including nucleic and amino acids biosynthesis. Because of that, cancerous cells are exceptionally avid for folate to sustain their uncontrolled division. Indeed, folate receptor is a prominent marker found in over two third of diagnosed tumour making it a privileged target to deliver cytotoxic drugs into malignant cells selectively. The focus of this project is to build novel folate-conjugated cytotoxic molecules to be tested with different folate-receptor expressing tumour cells. This work will pave the way to the design of innovative tumour-targeting drug molecules with enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity.