UM scholar gives talk on research into new cancer treatments using animal venoms

The University of Macau (UM) held the 21st UM Scholar Research Forum, with Henry Kwok Hang Fai, head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Health Sciences, as the speaker. Prof Kwok gave a talk titled ‘Looking into New Cures from Animal Venoms to Fight against Cancer’ and shared his research findings. The talk attracted a full house, with many secondary school students and teachers participating online.

During the talk, Prof Kwok mentioned that venoms, which contain more than 100 different compounds, have been extensively utilised for drug development over the past three decades. However, less than one-thousandth of the estimated 10 to 50 million compounds in venom libraries have been identified and characterised. Prof Kwok then explained how to identify and characterise novel venom-based peptides with anti-cancer properties, and discussed the latest research advancements in delivering these peptides to cancer cells.