A new understanding of cell organization with exciting implications for cancer drug delivery

TheoryLab

It’s difficult to comprehend how busy and densely packed it is on the inside of a cell. But understanding cell structure and organization is critical to developing new cancer drugs. Isaac Klein, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Richard Young Laboratory at the Whitehead Institute, recently published findings that could have wide-ranging implications for the understanding of how cancer drugs work. Dr. Klein joined the podcast to explain why knowing how to get cancer drugs to exactly the right place in a cell—at a sufficient concentration—is critical to developing new and more effective cancer treatments. Isaac Klein, MD, PhD, is the American Cancer Society Layla Rohani Postdoctoral Fellow. His grant was specially funded by the Rohani Family and Friends. He is a physician and scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center and Whitehead Institute at MIT. 4:11 – What is it like inside of a cell? Is organization a challenge for cells? 8:30 – A great analogy to help us understand cell organization and “condensates,” and why it’s important for some sub-compartments in cells not to have membranes walling them off from other parts of the cell. 13:47 – With no membranes, or walls, how do the contents of a condensate stay together? 19:50 – How cancer drugs are pulled into different condensates 23:02 – How cancer drugs get to the right spot in a cell, at the right concentration 26:23 – How the cancer drug Cisplatin works 31:07 – How their research findings hint at ways to make cancer drugs more powerful 35:03 – The impact of ACS funding on his research 36:24 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers