Media Platforms Design TeamInnovators: Karen Brewer, Brenda Winkel, Virginia Tech; Roger Dumoulin-White, Theralase TechnologiesTwo Virginia Tech scientists may have invented the future of cancer treatment—a way to eradicate tumors without the harmful side effects of chemotherapy, radiation or a surgeon’s scalpel. They’ve built what chemist Karen Brewer calls a “molecular machine” that seeks out fast-replicating cancer cells and becomes lethal only when exposed to light.Other photodynamic therapies rely on drugs that grab oxygen molecules from nearby tissue, so they are powerless against dense, fast-growing cancers—such as breast, brain, lung and prostate—with hypoxic, or oxygen-free, cores. “I really wanted to come up with something completely different, a light-activated drug that would not require oxygen,” says Brewer, an expert at building light-triggered on/off switches for chemical compounds. Biologist Brenda Winkel helped develop a DNA-targeting compound to attach to the trigger. Then, Toronto-based Theralase Technologies licensed it for use with its own deep-penetrating super-pulsed laser. “This shows promise in terms of getting deeper-seated tissue,” says National Cancer Institute program manager Rosemary Wong. “It would allow you to address a number of different cancers.” The new therapy has recently begun Phase II trials, part of a seven-year road map for Food and Drug Administration approval. “Cancer is really just cells that have lost the ability to die,” says Theralase president Roger Dumoulin-White. “With the help of a compound and a light source, we’re granting that cell the ability to bow out gracefully. We’re fixing what’s really broken versus trying to cut it out.”
