at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Western Switzerland

The overall aim of the Molecular Pharmacology Group’s research is the identification of optimized therapeutic strategies for the treatment of complex disease, mainly cancer. Our optimization strategy uses fundamental research to reveal the action mechanisms of the optimized drug mixtures. The latter, in turn, may identify novel signaling pathways, mechanisms of resistance and may lead to new drug discovery alleys.

The mainstays of the ongoing research are:                            ​

- design of personalized optimization of multidrug combinations

- identification of novel targets for treatment

- patient-derived 3D in vitro tumor models

- cell fate mechanisms

- overcoming acquired resistance of targeted drugs

- alternative to mammalian screening models

We work in a close collaboration with clinicians, engineers, biologists and  medical oncologists in order to perform clinically relevant translational research to improve cancer treatment efficacy, reduce side effects and probability of a drug acquired resistance. Our ultimate goal is to develop personalized synergistic combination therapies to the dynamically changing tumor response.

Recent news

• Our results on integration of phenotypic search with phosphoproteomic profiling of active kinases for optimization of drug mixtures was just acepted for publication
  
• We welcome our new master students in the lab: Lea Blanc, Sahar Boss and Romain Absolonne
  
• Our study on high-order drug combinations to treat colorectal carcinoma and its activity in in vivo models just accepted for publication in Molecular Oncology
  
• Magdalena Rausch is a finalist of a Booster Prize 2020 competition - congratulations! The Booster sheds light on and raise funds for PhD thesis projects in biomedical sciences at the University of Geneva
• Our research gains attention of specialists - see beyond the abstract release: https://www.urotoday.com/recent-abstracts/urologic-oncology/renal-cancer/122174-identification-of-low-dose-multidrug-combinations-for-sunitinib-naive-and-pre-treated-renal-cell-carcinoma-beyond-the-abstract.html
• George M. Ramzy published his first paper in our lab. Congratulations! https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/12/6/1423
• Interview of Prof E. Allemann and Prof. P. Nowak-Sliwinska published in the Swiss news journal 24 heures (23 May 2020): Cellules dé cvag et placenta pour réduir es tests sur l'animal. Zoom sur les alternatives à l'expérimentation in vivo, entre atouts et limites
• Prof. Patrycja Nowak-Sliwinska awarded with the 3R UNIGE 2020 prize.