Brain-Penetrating Bioconjugate M13-CTX-PEP-1 for Targeted Glioblastoma Therapy In Silico
CWSF · 2026 Disease & Illness Bronze Medal
Overview
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary brain tumor (Mayo Clinic, 2025), presenting with a 5-year survival rate of 5-10%. Current treatments for GBM are impeded by the tumor's aggressive metastasis and the blood-brain barrier (BBB), a highly selective membrane responsible for blocking 98% of small molecules from accessing the brain (Dynarowicz et al., 2026). This project aims to computationally engineer bacteriophage M13 with deathstalker scorpion-derived venom chlorotoxin and synthetic cell-penetrating peptide PEP-1 (Abubakr, 2026) for the creation of a phage-based, BBB-permeable drug. M13-CTX primarily binds to the cancer protein Il13Ra2, responsible for facilitating tumor metastasis and invasion. Molecules were constructed via protein folding algorithms and optimized for targeting; molecular docking was then conducted to measure targeting potential. The study concluded that M13-CTX holds great potential as a non-toxic, selective targeting drug for GBM therapy with minimal off-target effects. Future steps will focus on assembling and testing M13-CTX in vitro.
Awards (2)
- Bronze Medal
- Selected for CWSF 2026
Competition history
- CWSF 2026
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