at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland

The overall aim of the Molecular Pharmacology Group’s research is the identification of optimized therapeutic strategies for the treatment of complex disease, mainly cancer. Our optimization strategy uses fundamental research to reveal the action mechanisms of the optimized drug mixtures. The latter, in turn, may identify novel signaling pathways, mechanisms of resistance and may lead to new drug discovery alleys.

The mainstays of the ongoing research are:                            ​

- design of personalized optimization of multidrug combinations

- identification of novel targets for treatment

- patient-derived 3D in vitro tumor models

- cell fate mechanisms

- overcoming acquired resistance of targeted drugs

- alternative to mammalian screening models

We work in a close collaboration with clinicians, engineers, biologists and  medical oncologists in order to perform clinically relevant translational research to improve cancer treatment efficacy, reduce side effects and probability of a drug acquired resistance. Our ultimate goal is to develop personalized synergistic combination therapies to the dynamically changing tumor response.

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Recent news

• Welcome to Mathis Fiault who joins our team as a PhD student (collaboration with Serge Rudaz)
• Welcome to Diana Boeva and Catia Monteiro (Collaboration with Gerrit Borchard) who joined our lab to execute their master research projects
• Welcome to Mireia Andreu Carbo who joins our team as a post-doctoral researcher (collaboration with Patrick Meraldi)
• Our recent review article on multidrug combinations delivery is published in Journal of  Controlled Relsease: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365923002572?via%3Dihub
• Our recent collaborative research is published in Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research (open access): https://rdcu.be/c85eJ. Featuring press release: https://www.unige.ch/communication/communiques/en/2023/des-tumeurs-avatars-pour-combattre-le-cancer-colorectal