Frank Dekker awarded NWO ENW-M1 grant

Associate professor Frank Dekker was awarded an NWO ENW-M1 grant for a research project on Hypoxia-induced drug activation to enhance ferroptosis as a new treatment strategy for Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.

The current therapy for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) suffers from development of therapy resistance. Cancer cells responsible for development of therapy resistance reside in the bone marrow in a low oxygen environment. A mechanism that enables killing of therapy resistant cancers cells is called ferroptosis. The project aims to enhance the ferroptosis process by development of a novel therapeutic strategy. This strategy involves development of molecules that are activated by low oxygen concentrations and trigger degradation of proteins that suppress ferroptosis and thus enhance this process. Thus, this strategy will enable eradication of cancer cells that are resistant to chemotherapy, which will postpone or abolish relapse into cancer progression.