Binghamton pharmacy professor grateful for research grants, partnerships to improve drug delivery technology

Finding the treatments for cancer and other debilitating diseases is a daunting challenge for researchers around the world because of the side effects often caused by drug exposure in non-diseased tissue. Binghamton University Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Nathan Tumey aims to addressing this gap.

For more than 15 years, Tumey has focused his research on antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). ADCs take advantage of the specificity of antibodies to deliver drugs to diseased cells while sparing exposure in healthy tissue, leading to safer therapeutics. There are currently 13 ADC drugs on the market, all developed for the treatment of cancer.

Tumey employs his background in medicinal chemistry to design new ADC technology that further improves the specificity of these drugs, with a particular focus on applying this technology for diseases beyond cancer.

SUNY funding, such as that provided by the Technology Accelerator Funding (TAF), is critical to the success of Tumey's technology. TAF funding is specifically awarded to accelerated private investment, corporate partnerships and company formation for SUNY-led research projects.

His lab has developed new ADC technology that relies on an enzyme known as legumain that is overexpressed in a variety of diseases, including cancer. The TAF funding will be used to support a three-way collaboration between National Institutes of Health researchers (Dr. Javed Khan) and Manhattan BioSolutions aimed at developing next-generation ADCs for pediatric cancer.

"We are very excited by the preliminary results we've generated, and the funding from TAF will help us to optimize the technology so that we can select the best molecule for clinical development," Tumey said.

Tumey has a background in the pharmaceutical industry, spending nearly 15 years at various companies (including Pfizer) prior to joining Binghamton.

"Academic research is exciting - but movement towards clinical application almost always involves the private sector," Tumey said. "These types of partnerships are essential for translating laboratory findings into clinical practice."

Over the past seven years, Tumey has built corporate relationships that have helped move projects forward and, in some cases, provided essential funding for research at Binghamton. One relationship that Tumey is excited about is a new collaboration with BigHat Biosciences.

"My background in chemistry allows me to invent new ADC technology - but I <_w3a_sdt>am not an expert in antibody discovery. BigHat is," Tumey said. "They have some amazing machine learning algorithms that allow them to rapidly generate and optimize antibodies using AI/ML technologies for various therapeutic applications. So I'm really excited to be able to work with them to apply our chemical technologies to their antibodies."

BigHat is providing funding for his lab to develop new ADC technology that may push this modality into space beyond oncology, he added: "ADCs historically have been used to deliver drugs to cancer cells, but the same technology can be applied for various disease states."

Now, he's looking ahead to exploring ADCs for immunological disorders, organ transplants and even infectious diseases.

"The future of ADC technology is very bright," he said. "Many of the liabilities have been worked out, and now the technology is poised to have a broad impact on healthcare in the coming years. I'm really excited to be a part of it, and to be work<_w3a_sdt>ing with some amazing corporate sponsors and partners to push ADC technology to the next level."