14.2.2025
Doctoral thesis on how the tumour microenvironment affects cancer growth, spread, and resistance to treatment
M.Sc. Yonghui Wang’s doctoral thesis in Drug Development will be put forth for public defence at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Åbo Akademi University.
The thesis is entitled Delivery of Multiple Drugs and Mitochondria to Regulate the Tumour Microenvironment for Cancer Treatment.
The public defence of the doctoral thesis takes place on Friday 21 February 2025 at 1PM in auditorium Argentum, Aurum, Henrikinkatu 2, Turku. You can also follow the defence online. Assistant Professor M. Ali Shahbazi, University of Groningen, The Netherlands will serve as opponent and Professor Hongbo Zhang, Åbo Akademi University, as custos.
Summary
This thesis explored how the tumour microenvironment (TME) affects cancer growth, spread, and resistance to treatment. Think of the TME as the “soil,” and cancer cells as the “seeds”. Just like seeds can only grow in good soil, tumours need a supportive environment to survive and spread. Blood vessels, immune cells, and other tissue components work together to create this environment, which affects how the tumour grows and how well treatments work.
That’s why successful cancer treatment doesn’t just focus on destroying cancer cells (the seeds) but also aims to change the microenvironment (the soil) so that it’s no longer helpful to the tumour.
Developing entirely new treatments takes a lot of time and resources. To overcome this, this thesis used nanodelivery technology to improve existing treatments and better target the TME, helping to stop the tumour from growing. Two main strategies were explored: Combination Therapy and Metabolic Intervention.
The first strategy focused on using different treatments together, like chemotherapy and light-based therapies, to disrupt the tumour’s environment and make chemotherapy work better. The second strategy aimed at changing the tumour’s internal energy to weaken its cells and stop their growth.
By changing the “soil” (TME), these nanotechnology-based approaches created an environment that slowed tumour growth, improved the effectiveness of treatments, and offered new ways to fight cancer.
Yonghui Wang can be reached by phone +358 41 741 0862 or email yonghui.wang@abo.fi.
The doctoral thesis can be read online through the Doria publication archive.
Click here for a press photo of the doctoral student.
Instructions for following the doctoral defence remotely:
To follow the defence, you need the Zoom software or the Google Chrome browser. You do not need to create a Zoom account to follow the defence. If you install the application, you participate by clicking on the meeting link, after which you should allow the link to open in the Zoom app.