Singapore, March 18, 2015 – A new drug delivery system from the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) of A*STAR that uses green tea to fight cancer has won the Grand Prize at The Crown Prince Creative, Innovative Product and Technological Advancement (CIPTA) Award 2015. The award ceremony was held in Brunei on Saturday, March 14, 2015.
The CIPTA Award is a biennial competition organized by the Institut Teknologi Brunei and Brunei LNG to encourage and develop innovations in Brunei. The submissions were judged by an international panel of experts in academia and industry led by Professor Salim Al-Hassani, President of the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, UK and Professor of Mechanical Engineering, University of Manchester.
This year, the CIPTA award introduced a new category open to all ASEAN countries. IBN emerged the winner out of 28 submissions from ASEAN for the New Invention and Innovation Award, which includes a trophy and a cash prize of BND$8,000. As a winner in the ASEAN category, IBN’s invention was eligible to enter a second round of judging to win the CIPTA’s Grand Prize, which includes a trophy and a cash prize of BND$10,000. The Grand Prize and the ASEAN Award was presented to the IBN team by the Crown Prince of Brunei, Prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah, the patron of this competition. This is the first time that the Grand Prize was awarded since the inception of the competition in 2005.
The IBN team of inventors consists of Senior Research Scientist Dr Joo Eun Chung, Principal Research Scientist Dr Motoichi Kurisawa, and Executive Director Professor Jackie Y. Ying. “We are delighted and honored to be the Grand Prize winner of the Crown Prince CIPTA Award. This work represents major team work and collaboration over several years. In particular, we would like to thank Susi Tan, Shu Jun Gao and Nunnarpas Yongvongsoontorn for their contributions to the project. We will continue to work on this versatile nanotechnology platform for the delivery of proteins, drugs, and active ingredients of food and consumer care products,” said Professor Jackie Y. Ying.
Epigallocatechin gallate, a key compound in green tea, is an anti-oxidant known to have therapeutic applications in the treatment of cancer and many disorders. The IBN researchers have successfully engineered nanocarriers from the compound that can deliver cancer drugs more effectively than using the drugs alone.
“Drug carriers are used to deliver drugs, and usually have no therapeutic effects. In our green tea-based drug delivery system, both the carrier and the protein drugs are fighting the cancer, and this synergistic mechanism can kill more cancer cells. The novel green tea-based nanocomplex can also target the tumor better with no side effects,” said Dr Joo Eun Chung.
“We are honored to receive this prestigious award. This is the first time that green tea is used as a material to deliver drugs to cancer cells. We hope to take this technology to clinical trials so that it would benefit the cancer patients,” said Dr Motoichi Kurisawa.
This nanomedicine breakthrough could pave the way for a better drug delivery system to fight cancer. The work was published in the leading journal Nature Nanotechnology in October 2014.
