Warwick seeks development partner for osmium chemotherapy

Licensing opportunity | Development opportunity

Researchers in Department of Chemistry, at Warwick University have been exploring the use of the precious metal osmium as a chemotherapy and are working with Warwick Ventures, the university’s technology transfer office, to find development partners. 

Osmium is closely related to platinum, which is the active ingredient in the widely used cancer treatment cisplatin. Peter Sadler, of the Department of Chemistry, said, “Although cisplatin has been proven to be a very successful treatment; it is not useful for all kinds of cancer. It is also quite a toxic therapy, which can produce side effects and, from a clinical point of view, cells can also become resistant to platinum.” Another advantage is that osmium is cheaper than platinum.

Osmium has shown promise in treating several different types of cancer cell in vitro, including ovarian and colon cancers.

The researchers are developing new compounds using osmium, which it is hoped will lead to the development of drugs that could be used in combination therapies alongside existing treatments such as cisplatin. “The compounds we have been developing are very promising,” said one of the researchers, Sabine van Rijt. “We’re building a picture of how different [osmium] compounds might interact with DNA in cancer cells.”