{"id":34617,"date":"2026-02-24T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/?p=34617"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:15:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:15:47","slug":"new-polymer-trash-collectors-target-cancers-toughest-proteins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/new-polymer-trash-collectors-target-cancers-toughest-proteins\/","title":{"rendered":"New Polymer \u2018Trash Collectors\u2019 Target Cancer\u2019s Toughest Proteins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-blockquote uagb-block-e7eb3fc3 uagb-blockquote__skin-border uagb-blockquote__stack-img-none\"><blockquote class=\"uagb-blockquote\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content\">Northwestern University researchers have designed polymer \u201ctrash collectors\u201d that grab cancer\u2019s most stubborn proteins and drag them to the cell\u2019s waste bin. The approach halted tumor growth in mice and could open the door to new treatments for cancers long considered undruggable.<\/div><footer><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__author-wrap uagb-blockquote__author-at-left\"><\/div><\/footer><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-space-between is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-0dfbf163 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div style=\"font-size:16px;\" class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">The University Network<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share uagb-social-share__outer-wrap uagb-social-share__layout-horizontal uagb-block-ee584a31\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-ec619ce7\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"facebook\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.8 90.69 226.4 209.3 245V327.7h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.3 482.4 504 379.8 504 256z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-32d99934\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"twitter\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M389.2 48h70.6L305.6 224.2 487 464H345L233.7 318.6 106.5 464H35.8L200.7 275.5 26.8 48H172.4L272.9 180.9 389.2 48zM364.4 421.8h39.1L151.1 88h-42L364.4 421.8z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-1d136f14\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"linkedin\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\"><path d=\"M416 32H31.9C14.3 32 0 46.5 0 64.3v383.4C0 465.5 14.3 480 31.9 480H416c17.6 0 32-14.5 32-32.3V64.3c0-17.8-14.4-32.3-32-32.3zM135.4 416H69V202.2h66.5V416zm-33.2-243c-21.3 0-38.5-17.3-38.5-38.5S80.9 96 102.2 96c21.2 0 38.5 17.3 38.5 38.5 0 21.3-17.2 38.5-38.5 38.5zm282.1 243h-66.4V312c0-24.8-.5-56.7-34.5-56.7-34.6 0-39.9 27-39.9 54.9V416h-66.4V202.2h63.7v29.2h.9c8.9-16.8 30.6-34.5 62.9-34.5 67.2 0 79.7 44.3 79.7 101.9V416z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>For decades, some of cancer\u2019s most dangerous proteins have been labeled too tough to target with drugs. Now, Northwestern University scientists have found a way to stop fighting those proteins head-on and instead send them straight to the cellular trash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a new study, researchers engineered protein-like polymers, or PLPs, that latch onto cancer-driving proteins and escort them to the cell\u2019s waste-disposal machinery. Once there, the proteins are broken down and cleared away, triggering cancer cell death and slowing tumor growth in early tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-026-68913-3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">published<\/a> in <em>Nature Communications<\/em>, takes aim at two of the most notorious cancer culprits: MYC and KRAS. These proteins help drive uncontrolled growth in many tumor types and have long frustrated drug developers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMYC and KRAS drive a huge fraction of human cancers \u2014 often aggressive ones \u2014 and effective drugs for them are extremely limited,\u201d\u00a0study leader Nathan Gianneschi, a professor of chemistry, materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering and pharmacology at Northwestern, said in a news release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most modern cancer drugs try to block a protein\u2019s activity by fitting into a precise pocket on its surface, like a key in a lock. But many cancer-driving proteins, including MYC and KRAS, are floppy or disordered and lack a clear pocket. That makes it extremely difficult for traditional small-molecule drugs or antibodies to get a good enough \u201chandle,\u201d to bind and shut them down. These targets are often described as \u201cundruggable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Northwestern team took a different tack. Instead of trying to jam the lock, they built a system to throw away the entire lock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Their PLPs, and a specific class of them called HYDRACs (HYbrid DegRAding Copolymers), are long, flexible chains decorated with multiple functional parts. Some parts are short protein fragments, or peptides, that recognize and bind to a target protein such as MYC or KRAS. Other parts act as signals that call over the cell\u2019s natural protein-degradation machinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This strategy taps into a quality-control system that every cell already uses to find and destroy old, damaged or unneeded proteins. HYDRACs essentially hijack that system and redirect it toward disease-causing proteins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gianneschi described the design in simple terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEach PLP essentially has two hands,\u201d he said. \u201cOne hand grabs the protein, and the other hand grabs the cell\u2019s \u2018dust bin.\u2019 It\u2019s literally like picking up a piece of trash off the ground, grabbing the waste basket and putting them near each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By bringing the target protein and the degradation machinery together, the polymers ensure that the protein is tagged and dismantled. Because the entire protein is removed, the approach does not depend on blocking a single site or mutation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In cell culture experiments, HYDRACs built to recognize MYC selectively degraded that protein in cancer cells. As MYC levels dropped, MYC-driven genes shut down and the cancer cells died. In mouse models with MYC-driven tumors, the MYC-targeted HYDRACs accumulated in tumors, reduced cancer cell proliferation and halted tumor growth, without significant side effects reported in the study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To show that the platform is flexible, the team then reprogrammed the polymers to target KRAS, another high-profile cancer driver found in about a quarter of human cancers, including many pancreatic and colorectal tumors. While a few small-molecule drugs have recently been approved for specific KRAS mutations, they only work for narrow subsets of patients and often stop working as tumors evolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn the last few years, researchers have developed small molecule drugs that target specific KRAS mutations,\u201d Gianneschi added. \u201cIn many cases, patients became resistant to the drugs as the cancer mutates to resist treatment. That\u2019s because cancer cells work incredibly hard to evade therapies, especially when they\u2019re hitting a protein target at the core of the tumor\u2019s survival.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In lab tests, the KRAS-targeting HYDRACs successfully degraded KRAS proteins in cancer cells, including versions carrying different mutations. Because the polymers do not rely on a single mutation site, they may be less vulnerable to resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s the advantage of the multivalent, polymer-based degrader strategy we have developed,\u201d added Gianneschi. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if a protein mutates, it\u2019s still going into the bin. KRAS can be actively changing, kicking and screaming all the way to the trash can, but all we need to do is destroy the whole protein. This is a potentially powerful way to foil the cell which cannot easily mutate away from your drug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The concept builds on a growing field known as targeted protein degradation, in which drugs do not simply block proteins but mark them for destruction. Most degraders developed so far are small molecules, which still struggle with disordered, pocket-free proteins like MYC and KRAS. By using larger, polymer-based structures with multiple binding sites, the Northwestern team hopes to overcome those limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Giannesch emphasized that the chemistry behind the platform is deliberately streamlined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe developed a one-step polymer chemistry solution,\u201d he said. &#8220;The protein mimetic polymers engage disordered proteins and bring them together with the cellular machinery that degrades it. That had never been done before, and it proved effective against some of the most challenging targets in cancer biology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the current study focused on cancer, the researchers see broader potential. Many neurodegenerative, inflammatory and metabolic diseases are driven by harmful proteins that build up or misbehave in cells. In principle, HYDRACs could be redesigned to recognize those proteins and send them to the trash as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBy demonstrating this platform with two completely different undruggable proteins, we think it might work to open up other targets,\u201d Gianneschi added. \u201cIt\u2019s a new way to think about targeted treatments. It\u2019s not just about finding the perfect small molecule. It\u2019s about designing systems that can work with the cell to eliminate many different harmful proteins altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Grove Biopharma, a company spun off from Northwestern, has licensed the intellectual property for the technology from the university and is advancing it as part of its Bionic Biologics platform, with the goal of moving toward clinical development. Gianneschi and the university hold financial interests in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For now, the findings are still in the experimental stage, tested in cells and animal models rather than in people. Much more work will be needed to understand how safe and effective these polymers are in the human body, how best to deliver them and which patients might benefit most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But by turning cancer\u2019s toughest proteins into cellular garbage, the approach offers a fresh angle on some of oncology\u2019s hardest problems \u2014 and a glimpse of a future in which even \u201cundruggable\u201d targets may no longer be out of reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.northwestern.edu\/stories\/2026\/02\/trashing-cancers-undruggable-proteins?fj=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Northwestern University<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northwestern University researchers have designed polymer \u201ctrash collectors\u201d that grab cancer\u2019s most stubborn proteins and drag them to the cell\u2019s waste bin. The approach halted tumor growth in mice and could open the door to new treatments for cancers long considered undruggable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-no-separators","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[45],"class_list":["post-34617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-northwestern-university"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"The University Network","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/author\/funky_junkie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Northwestern University researchers have designed polymer \u201ctrash collectors\u201d that grab cancer\u2019s most stubborn proteins and drag them to the cell\u2019s waste bin. The approach halted tumor growth in mice and could open the door to new treatments for cancers long considered undruggable.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34617"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34643,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34617\/revisions\/34643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}