Iridium catalyst activates chemotherapy drug directly at targeted cancer cells

Conventional chemotherapy treatments often attack not only cancer cells but also healthy tissue, leading to severe side effects such as hair loss or nausea. The team led by Dr. Thomas Ward from the Department of Chemistry and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) at the University of Basel is therefore pursuing an approach that uses artificial metal compounds as catalysts that specifically bind to tumor cells and then convert so-called prodrugs into the active ingredient at the tumor site.