Award-Winning Research Targets Lin28 to Fight Drug-Resistant Cancers

Congratulations to Victor Barrios from Dr. Xuesen Dong’s lab received the CHRI Doctoral Research Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships for their project titled "Developing novel Lin28 inhibitors for computer-aided drug design."

Victor’s award-winning research focuses on a promising new approach to cancer treatment by targeting a protein called Lin28. This protein plays a major role in helping cancer cells grow, spread, and resist therapy by acting like stem cells. Although Lin28 is a well-known driver of aggressive cancers, no effective drugs have been developed to block it—until now.

Using advanced computer-aided drug design (CADD), they are developing compounds that prevent Lin28 from binding to its RNA targets. One of their newly discovered compounds has already shown strong potential: it reduces cancer stem cell activity and enhances the effects of chemotherapy.

This innovative work could pave the way for more effective treatments for hard-to-treat cancers and improve outcomes for patients facing drug-resistant tumors.