Too often cancer treatments result in unwanted side effects such as pain, nausea and vomiting, fatigue, anemia, alopecia (loss of hair) or premature death. Debilitating infections and lasting heart problems may result from the off-target side effects of current cancer treatments. Innovative research and development focused on the delivery of cancer drugs to the sensitive interior of individual cancer cells is urgently needed.

RJS Biologics is developing a novel approach to cancer treatment that uses computationally designed affinity tags to drive therapeutic compounds into tumor cells. This targeted approach, which could be used for both existing and novel chemotherapeutic agents for a variety of cancer types, is anticipated to improve both the efficacy and safety of cancer therapy.  Our affinity tags maximize tumor uptake of tethered drugs by allowing drugs to “hitchhike” into cancer cells using proteins produced by most cancers.  We strive to minimize unwanted uptake of these drugs by normal cells.  RJS Biologics’ innovative approach should be broadly applicable to many anti-cancer drugs and we hope to improve the predictability cancer treatments.

Animation Credits:  Ihab Mardini & Raymond McCarthy Bergeron