WANA (Dec 08) – Iranian scientists at the Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research (ACECR) have developed a new generation of domestically engineered technologies for cancer diagnosis and targeted treatment, marking a significant step forward in the country’s biomedical research capabilities.

 

According to project officials, research teams have achieved a suite of innovations in gene therapy and oncolytic virotherapy, leading to several locally built platforms designed to treat drug-resistant cancers. These advances include engineered oncolytic viruses, diagnostic microfluidic chips, and smart imaging nanoparticles.

 

A key achievement is the recombinant oncolytic adenovirus OncoMed, capable of selectively replicating in cancer cells. It is described as Iran’s first indigenous platform for targeted gene- and virus-based therapies aimed at hard-to-treat tumors.

Researchers have also introduced an Iranian microfluidic chip that accelerates immunohistochemistry staining in breast cancer biopsy samples, significantly reducing diagnostic time. In parallel, targeted magnetic imaging nanoparticles have been developed to enable high-precision detection of tumors in their early stages.

 

Additional innovations include a microfluidics-based circulating tumor cell (CTC) counting kit to monitor treatment response, and a “tumor-on-a-chip” platform designed to evaluate the effectiveness of anti-cancer drugs under conditions that closely mimic human tissue.

 

Collectively, these technologies represent one of Iran’s most comprehensive efforts to localize advanced cancer-care tools and expand domestic capacity in biomedical engineering and precision oncology.