Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

General drug cytotoxicity and drug resistance are major hurdles in traditional cancer therapies, stemming from the nonspecific delivery of cancer therapeutics to normal and cancerous cells simultaneously. We aim to develop a new method for targeted cancer therapy using non-toxic DNA cages and nanotubes. Length, diameter and composition of these DNA cages can be tuned and modified, to generate delivery molecules that can accommodate a plethora of cargo molecules, including cancer therapeutics. We have shown that DNA cages are able to accumulate in cancer cells, more specifically in drug resistant leukemia cells. We propose to encapsulate a wide range of cancer destroying molecules such as cytotoxic drugs, RNA molecules, and other cancer inhibiting agents. We propose that this novel class of cages made up of DNA bases, will evade the innate immune system, successfully and specifically deliver novel and pre-existing cancer therapeutics to cancer cells without affecting normal cells.