Nucleic acids as drugs and targets
- Sofi Elmroth
The work in our group focuses around studies of anticancer active drugs- and drug candidates and their interactions with DNA and RNA. We aim at identifying targets on DNA- or RNA-level that may facilitate the development of novel generations of highly efficient metal-based protocols for treatment of cancers. Current work in the group includes studies of platinum-, gold- and ruthenium-based anticancer active drugs and their influence on nucleic acid structure, transcription and protein translation. In a recently initiated project we are also investigating how short interfering RNAs (siRNA) might be used in combination with the metal-based drugs to optimize anticancer activity.
Ongoing work
- Hanna Hedman
Development of metal containing siRNA-protocols for highly selective inhibition of protein synthesis - Margareta Hägerlöf
Mechanistic and structural aspects of platinum-RNA interactions, siRNA-RNA interactions and their combinations - Åse Sykfont Snygg
Structural and mechanistic studies of platinum- and ruthenium-based anticancer active drugs and their interactions with DNA and RNA models - Pal Papsai
tRNA as a drug target – structural and functional studies of interference with the aminoacylation reaction - Meiling Hung
Studies of polyamines and antimetastatic ruthenium complexes - influence on nucleic acid structure and function.