At the Ifom-Ieo Campus, a study began on the operation of a molecule which opens new avenues of research for less toxic treatments in chemotherapie. The study in Cell magazine.

Developing new chemotherapies able to kill cancer cells without harming healthy ones: This is the goal that's still far away but we can see the light. Thanks to an international study to which has substantially contributed a team of Campus Ifom-Ieo (Foundation Institute of Molecular Oncology - European Institute of Oncology) in Milan, in fact, it was possible to identify a molecule - called Ndc80 - which could be the ideal target of new chemotherapeutic drugs, because it's active only when the cell reproduces (mitosis). The research, led by Andrea Musacchio in collaboration with Peter De Wulf, was published in the journal Cell.

One of the problems with current chemotherapies is that, in addition to attacking the cancer cells, in part it also kills healthy cells. This is because the drugs (for example, taxolo) affect proteins that, although mostly engaged in the process of cell proliferation (typical of tumor masses), they are also involved in other processes with other cells that are not sick. A molecule found only in reproducing cells would be the ideal target.