Research

A novel virus-free anticancer gene therapy developed by Dr. Patrick TANG, Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomical and Cellular Pathology; and Professor Huiyao LAN, Choh-Ming Li Research Professor of Biomedical Sciences, was awarded Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury Medal in the International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva 2021.

Massive pathogenic genes have been discovered for cancer, but the lack of corresponding target drugs largely limits their clinical translation. Although gene therapy can utilise viruses to modify diseased genes to eradicate cancer, viral vectors have certain clinical safety risks. So, the research team invented a new gene therapy that can regulate gene transcription without using a virus.

The research team has combined RNAi interference technology and an ultrasonic microbubble system to guide shRNA expression plasmids into tumour tissues to induce therapeutic effects by inhibiting the diseased genes at transcriptome level. Importantly, no virus is used throughout the process. This invention can be used as a rapid evaluating platform for anticancer efficiency and the safety of new therapeutic targets preclinically, as well as further development towards a safe targeted gene therapy clinically.