PRISM is focused on the development of innovative drug delivery pathways and treatments for a wide spectrum of human diseases, including cancer. 

Cancer

PRISM has developed novel approaches to treating cancer, including new tumor models that replicate responses seen in human cancer patients.  Work has also unveiled that endothelial cells lining blood vessels provide targets accessible to circulating drugs and native cellular transport mechanisms can be exploited to drive agents deep into tumor tissue.

By targeting tumor-specific endothelial proteins, therapies can be concentrated inside tumors.  Selectively delivering high doses of drugs into tumors while sparing healthy surrounding tissue will help improve efficacy and alleviate many of the toxic side effects associated with current therapies.

Pulmonary Fibrosis

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a debilitating disease with no effective therapy. PRISM is developing the caveolae-targeting platform in order to pump anti-fibrotic agents rapidly and specifically into diseased lung tissue. The ability to deliver the entire therapeutic dose directly to the lung is likely to increase therapeutic potency at low doses and minimize toxicity. Generating novel and more effective targeted therapies for fibrotic lung diseases could yield a paradigm shift in how drugs are delivered for many other pulmonary diseases.