Hyunjoon Kim, Ph.D., Institute for Advancing Medical Innovations Trailblazer Award
By Frontiers , Clinical and Translational Science Institute
May 06, 2025
Motivated by connections he made with physicians, researchers, and most importantly, patients, during his time as a Ph.D. student, Hyunjoon Kim, Ph.D., wants to develop more patient friendly ways to treat bladder cancer. As a drug delivery researcher at the University of Kansas, Kim hopes to develop novel drug delivery platforms and therapeutics to treat bladder cancer. Although bladder cancer is one of the most common cancers in the US, treatment options are limited and uncomfortable or inconvenient for patients.
For early-stage bladder cancer and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), treatment options are restricted due in part to global shortages in manufacturing of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the standard of care immunotherapy treatment for early-stage bladder cancer and NMIBC. Because of BCG supply shortages and the rapid degradation of this biological drug once it is injected into the bladder, Kim says “there is a need in the field to identify or repurpose a drug that can be used for cancer immunotherapy to replace the current standard of care or to be used together with BCG to reduce the amount of BCG that is used in the clinic.” BCG is rapidly degraded and eliminated from the bladder, so a drug that can stay in the bladder for a longer period would be extremely beneficial to patients. Currently, drug treatments are administered via catheter directly into the bladder once a week for six weeks. But, if there were a method to slow the bladder’s elimination of the drug, then patients may be able to “reduce the clinic visits to two or three times, which will make a significant benefit for the patient in terms of convenience and medical costs”.
In his Institute for Advancing Medical Innovations Trailblazer Award project, Kim is testing a small molecule drug for use in early-stage bladder cancer and NMIBC. This compound is already synthesized by a colleague at KU and Kim will repurpose it to test its efficacy in mouse models of bladder cancer. His first aim is to demonstrate the efficacy of the compound in stimulating the immune cells in mice bladder, which would open doors for studies of the compound in humans. His second aim is to develop a formulation of the compound that would stay in the bladder longer. If successful, this could have important implications for increasing treatment options and reducing clinical visits and discomfort in early-stage bladder cancer and NMIBC patients.
Frontiers
Clinical and Translational Science Institute
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