research overview
- The Koch research group is currently focused on the development of doxazolidine prodrugs for the treatment of primary liver cancer and pancreatic cancer. Doxazolidine, discovered in the Koch group, is a formaldehyde conjugate of the broad spectrum anti-tumor drug doxorubicin. Doxazolidine is orders of magnitude more effective for induction of tumor cell apoptosis than doxorubicin and works by a different mechanism. Doxazolidine is very short lived under physiological conditions and requires prodrug delivery. A prodrug is inactive and robust in vivo and transformed to the active drug at the disease site. The group is designing and evaluating strategies for selective prodrug delivery of doxazolidine to tumors through activation of the prodrug by enzymes highly abundant at the tumor.
