Assoc. Prof. Dr. Christian Kowol
Prodrug Development, Drug Delivery Systems, Drug Targeting
Phone: +43 1 4277 52611
Email: christian.kowol@univie.ac.at
Währinger Straße 42, "Wolkenflügel" Room W2164
(Access via the main staircase between 1st and 2nd floor, floor plan.)
Research Focus
Chemotherapy and therapy with small targeted molecules are two major strategies for treatment of human cancer at the disseminated stage. However, even when using new targeted drugs, the therapy is often limited by severe side effects, resistance development and insufficient tumor accumulation.
The research of my group focuses on the development of new strategies to overcome these limitations:
- Bioinorganic prodrug development of clinically approved drugs to prevent the occurrence of severe side effects
- Drug delivery systems like nanoparticles, liposomes, polymers for tumor-specific accumulation and activation of anticancer drugs
- Drug targeting strategies using tumor-specific peptides
All research projects are highly interdisciplinary and are developed in close cooperation with the Center for Cancer Research of the Medical University of Vienna within the Research Cluster “Translational Cancer Therapy Research”.
News & Press Releases
- Nanocarrier: Minitransporter auf Tumorjagd
- "Altes in neuem Glanz: Platin in der Krebstherapie"
- New interdisciplinary Research Group for investigation of the tumor microenvironment
- "Chemical Reviews" article: Metal chemotherapy drugs boost the impact of immunotherapy in cancer
- Foundation of spin-off "P4 Therapeutics": The next generation of platinum drugs
Scientific Collaborations
KARST, Uwe, University of Münster, Germany
ENYEDY, Éva Anna, University of Szeged, Hungary
FALLER Peter, University of Strasbourg, France
TEASDALE, Ian, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Team
Alexander Kastner, MSc
Metal-based Anticancer prodrugs
Email: alexander.kastner@univie.ac.at
Phone: +43 1 4277 52613
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2168
Martijn Dijkstra, MSc
Anticancer Platinum(IV) Prodrugs
Email: martijn.dijkstra@univie.ac.at
Phone: +43 1 4277 52613
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2168
Anja Federa, MSc.
Anticancer tyrosine kinase inhibitor prodrugs
Email: anja.federa@univie.ac.at
Phone: +43 1 4277 52613
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2168
Dr. Julia Bormio Nunes
ESPRIT Postdoc Program: Silver complexes to overcome resistance in ovarian cancer
Email: julia.helena.bormio.nunes@univie.ac.at
Phone: +43 1 4277 52614
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2169
Mariia Iakovleva, MSc
Novel albumin-binding anticancer prodrugs
Email: mariia.iakovleva@univie.ac.at
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2168
Caroline Kast, BSc.
Novel anticancer thiosemicarbazone
Email: kastc89@univie.ac.at
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2167
Patrick Yassemipour, BSc.
Novel Pt(IV) anticancer drugs
Email: patrick.amir.yassemipour@univie.ac.at
Währinger Straße 42, Room W2169
Former Team Members
- Michael Bruckner (Master's student)
Development of novel anticancer thiosemicarbazone drug delivery systems - Philipp Fronik (PhD student)
Design, synthesis and evaluation of novel platinum(IV) prodrugs for cancer therapy - Marlene Mathuber (PhD student)
Prodrug and passive targeting strategies for anticancer therapeutics - Björn Bielec (PhD student)
Development of tumor-targeting and prodrug strategies of tyrosine kinase inhibitors - Sebastian Kallus (PhD student)
Drug delivery systems for cancer therapy - Karla Pelivan (PhD student)
Bioanalytical investigations of thiosemicarbazone anticancer drugs - Marianne Lahnsteiner (Master's student)
Synthesis and reactivity of thiol-targeting moieties for drug delivery - Alexander Unterlercher (Master's student)
Development of Anticancer Thiosemicarbazone Prodrug Systems - Florian Bachmann (Master's student)
Novel albumin-targeting platinum anticancer complexes - Julia Bormio Nunes (Visiting PhD student, Department of Inorganic Chemistry Department, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil)
- Josef Mayr (PhD student)
Maleimide-functionalized platinum(IV) complexes as platform for tumor-targeted drug delivery - Claudia Karnthaler-Benbakka (PhD student)
Targeting a Targeted Drug - Tumor-Specific Prodrug Systems of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors - Britta Fischer (PhD student)
Development of drug delivery systems for clinically investigated anticancer agents