A team of Sharjah Institute for Medical Research aspires to help cancer therapists identify cancer cells for effective treatment
A University of Sharjah research project aimed at strengthening the fight against cancer is all set to put the prestigious institution as well as the UAE into the international arena as notable contributors to medical and scientific research.
The research work of the Drug Design and Discovery research group in Sharjah Institute for Medical Research (SIMR), the University of Sharjah, is aimed at helping cancer therapists to differentiate between cancer and normal cells, which is considered a major challenge in effective treatment of the lethal disease.
Dr Raafat El-Awady, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Sharjah, said that this research is at the forefront of the fight against cancer as it is aimed at developing a way to diminish the side effects of cancer treatment that fails to target only damaged cells.
Making an impressive presentation at the Expo Centre Sharjah on first day of the UAE Innovation Week 2016, he said that cancer continues to be a challenge worldwide despite the great advances in the field of cancer care.
One of the reasons for failure of cancer therapy is the inability of cancer therapeutics to differentiate between cancer and normal cells and they target both of them leading to severe side effects. Thus many cancer patients die from the treatment rather than the disease, he said.
To solve these issues, the University of Sharjah researchers are trying to develop what is called targeted cancer therapy by developing drugs that kill the cancer cells and have no or little effect on normal cells. This can be achieved by finding molecules that are only expressed in cancer cells or present in cancer cells in an amount higher than in normal cells.
Prof El-Awady said, We at the Sharjah Institute for Medical Research have developed many compounds that target such molecules. We have tested these compounds on cancer cells in the laboratory and selected the most effective ones to test them on experimental animals and the ones that will prove effective and safe in animal models can go into clinical trials in cancer patients.
Another strategy that is used by our group to develop new cancer therapeutics is called Drug repositioning' which involves testing drugs that are already present in the market and approved for diseases other than cancer as anti-cancer agents. This may save a lot of time and money because such drugs are already present in the market and there is no need to test their safety and their therapeutic doses, he added.
With an aim to become an international leader in translational medical sciences research, innovation, and training of future scientists, the Sharjah Institute for Medical Research focuses on cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular, neurological and infectious diseases. The research spectrum extends from molecular to population based studies.
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A team of Sharjah Institute for Medical Research aspires to help cancer therapists identify cancer cells for effective treatment 
