AIDS and Cancer Drug from a BAU Faculty Member

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Serdar Durdağı, faculty member at the Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Medicine who has been conducting his research in Germany and Canada for some time, is working on a drug candidate that could be effective in treating AIDS and cancer.

The drug, a candidate to become Türkiye's first "national drug", is planned to be put on the market in 2023.

DURDAĞI TO CONTINUE HIS RESEARCH AT BAU

Durdağı, who has been working on Carbon 60 and its analogues for about 10 years and discovered that they could be effective in preventing these diseases, will continue his research at the Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Medicine starting next year. Research groups from the USA, Canada, Germany, Italy and Greece are taking part in the project, which was launched with the support of the European Union.

Using the Carbon 60 molecule, recently regarded as a nanomaterial, for this purpose, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Durdağı obtained positive results in blocking the HIV-1 protease enzyme. Receiving scientific partnership and financial support from different countries, Durdağı developed various molecules using simulation techniques.

BAU STUDENTS TO WORK ON THE PROJECT

Quoted in the statement, Durdağı noted that no animal or human experiments have yet been conducted on the drug candidate molecule, which is in the biological testing phase, and provided the following information:

"As a result of in silico and biological tests, we saw that the molecule is effective on the HIV-1 protease enzyme. When our study was published in scientific journals of the American Chemical Society (ACS), it attracted the attention of other scientists around the world working on this subject. Using various techniques, we can examine drug–receptor interactions through computer simulations and gain insight into the molecular mechanism of the drug candidate. The biological tests of the molecule are being conducted in Italy. We are still at the very beginning of the work, and it is too early to say anything definitive. I will carry out the next stages from Türkiye. I would like students of the Bahçeşehir University Faculty of Medicine to take part in the project as well."