Oluebube Nwajiaku

Kings College London, United Kingdom

Abstract Title: Development of membrane-lytic Anticancer Peptides for the treatment of individual Cancer types

Biography:

Oluebube Nwajiaku is a PhD researcher in the Department of Chemistry at King’s College London. Her work focuses on developing new anticancer peptides to target specific types of cancer. She holds a BSc in Industrial Chemistry from Imo State University and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria. Oluebube is passionate about science communication and education, leading outreach initiatives to inspire young scientists. In 2024, she was awarded the Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy for her dedication to teaching and learning.

Research Interest:

Traditional cancer treatment is often hindered by significant challenges such as multi-drug resistance, lack of tumour selectivity, and severe side effects. In pursuing next-generation chemotherapeutics, membrane-perforating peptides have emerged as a promising solution. These anticancer peptides (ACPs) offer numerous advantages over conventional methods, including high activity, low immunogenicity, and excellent biocompatibility in vivo. EEK1, a recently developed 15-residue ACP, has broad-spectrum activity against different cancer types. In vitro EEK dose-response measurements on a range of patient-derived cancer and healthy cells have shown that EEK has some selectivity towards the cancerous cells. The mechanism of peptide activity is the selective formation of large aqueous pores in cancer cell plasma membranes. Building upon these results, a new peptide library with greater selectivity is designed using both in silico and in vitro methods.