Mission: Developing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic technologies that improve patient outcomes
The major thrust of our research was to develop specific peptides that will target biomarkers for early and accurate diagnosis of cancer, and then utilize as a precision therapy delivery vehicle for treatment resulting in saving patients’ lives with improved quality of life and lowering healthcare costs.
Biomarkers are a hallmark of many cancers. VPAC1 biomarkers, for example, are expressed on cell surfaces in high densities at the onset of oncogenesis. When VPAC1 receptors are targeted, cancer can be diagnosed early, but specifically, allowing physicians to distinguish malignant to benign lesions. This can lead to minimizing the number of unnecessary biopsies currently required to obtain a tissue for histology, which can induce anxiety in patients and cost billions of healthcare dollars.
There is a compelling need for a new precision technology that will distinguish malignant from benign lesions noninvasively in three areas of cancer care. VPAC1 cancer over expressions can account for: (1) Urine or Body Fluid In-Vitro Liquid Biopsy (2) Blood Based In-Vivo Radionuclide Imaging and (3) Blood Based Target Specific Radiation Therapy.