Grant: Project Grant

The deadly mushroom, A. phalloides produces a unique toxin known as amanitin that has a desired property of being able to kill both growing cells (easy) and quiescent cells (more difficult). This uniform toxicity is exciting for use in cancer therapy since not all cancer cells grow at the same rate. It is known that amanitin can be targeted to cancer by using either peptides or antibodies. However there is no viable route to synthetic amanitins and studies have relied on the natural product to develop amanitin drug conjugates. Recently we have published a total synthesis of amanitin and have become experts in its synthesis. This enables us to address the molecular pharamcology of this fascinating toxin and thereby modulate its toxicity to be directed to cancer cells.