By Institute for Advanced Chemistry of Catalonia (IQAC-CSIC)
The Drug Discovery and Medicinal Chemistry group specialises in medicinal chemistry and focuses on drug discovery projects aimed at developing innovative strategies to fight cancer. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play a key role in patient relapse after chemotherapy, and selective drugs targeting these cells remain scarce. Our group is developing innovative chemical strategies to eliminate CSCs with high selectivity. These include the use of new drug modalities, such as light-sensitive molecules, and the design of unique drug delivery strategies specifically tailored to these cells. We design, synthesise and evaluate the activity of molecules in enzymatic assays and in vitro cancer models. To ensure the translation of our projects, we collaborate with interdisciplinary centres and hospitals.
