UC Irvine Giving Day

When you give to the UC Irvine Anti-Cancer Challenge, you support research at the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. You provide physician-scientists with the resources to pursue groundbreaking projects with the potential to improve the lives of cancer patients in Orange County and beyond. 

One such project is GlyTR (pronounced "glitter"), a revolutionary therapy developed by UC Irvine cancer researchers that can attack many different types of cancer while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

“It's the holy grail — one treatment to kill virtually all cancers,” said Dr. Michael Demetriou, a professor of neurology, microbiology and molecular genetics at the UC Irvine School of Medicine who led the decade-long effort to develop GlyTR. 

GlyTR’s Velcro-like sugar-binding technology addresses the two major issues limiting current cancer immunotherapies: distinguishing cancer from normal tissue and cancer’s ability to suppress the body’s immune system. 

Demetriou and his team engineered GlyTR compounds to attach themselves to glycan-dense cancer cells while ignoring low-glycan-density normal cells. By blanketing the tumor cells, the GlyTR compounds penetrate the protective glycans’ shield and mark the cancer cells for killing by the body’s immune system. Current cancer immunotherapies attack cells based on specific proteins regardless of their density and thereby fail to distinguish tumor cells from healthy tissue.

GlyTR has since shown promise against breast, colon, lung, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancer in early studies. The next step is testing to prove the therapy is safe and effective in humans. Phase 1 clinical trials could begin in the next two years, starting with patients with a range of refractory metastatic solid cancers, a population with the greatest unmet need for treatment.

“Research saved my life. As a cancer survivor, I am eternally grateful to everyone who has donated to the Anti-Cancer Challenge,” said LeeAnn Brill, two-time breast cancer survivor and longtime Anti-Cancer Challenge volunteer. “This support has made it possible for patients like me to have more time with our families and gives hope that future generations won't have to face what I went through.”

Your gift to the Anti-Cancer Challenge today directly supports UC Irvine investigators such as Demetriou to continue to make unprecedented progress in the battle against cancer. Give to make an impact and invest in a better future for cancer patients and their loved ones.