How Mathematics and Nanotechnology are Advancing Cancer Treatment

Madhu Kumar, PhD, is an experienced biologist who most recently served as a scientific advisor to the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Over the course of his career, Dr. Madhu Kumar has made significant contributions to the field of cancer research and received the Hardiman-Redon prize from Cancer Research UK’s London Research Institute in 2012.

Recently, researchers have leveraged mathematical modeling and nanotechnology to develop exciting new possibilities in the realm of cancer treatment and the prevention of cancer cell resistance. Applied mathematicians at the University of Waterloo set out to investigate the signals and molecular pathways that allow individual cancer cells to become resistant to chemotherapy. The researchers created a mathematical model that offered an algorithmic representation of cancer cell state transitions during the application of an anticancer agent. This allowed them to pinpoint the specific molecular behaviors that result in resistance to chemotherapy following sustained treatment.

While much of the medical community previously believed that only specific, “privileged” cancer cells could achieve resistance, the University of Waterloo team discovered that resistance is most often the result of the over-activated PI3K/AKT kinase in cancer cells. This discovery indicates that, by targeting vulnerabilities in PI3K/AKT kinase inhibitors, medical researchers can prevent the development of cell resistance.

Inspired by this scientific development, bioengineers at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital drew on computer models to develop a self-assembling, two-in-one drug designed to curb cancer cell resistance with nanotechnology. Unlike previous approaches to two-in-one cancer therapies, the new therapy delivers both drugs simultaneously by assembling them within a single nano-vehicle.