Miles Patents New Cancer Fighting Compounds
by Sae Schatz

ORLANDO, Dec. 4, 2003 -- Dr. Howard Miles, a professor of chemistry at the University of Central Florida, just received a patent for an organic compound that may one day be made into cancer-fighting medicine. In the last two years the university has filed 15 patent applications for compounds that Dr. Miles and his team synthesized in their labs. All of the compounds appear to be effective in the fights against various diseases, including bone cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, leukemia, and tuberculosis.

Pharmaceuticals made from these new compounds may be superior to medicines that are already on the market, which are created from biological compounds that are harvested from nature. These drugs are expensive to produce and often have severe side effects. Dr. Miles's compounds have a much lower toxicity level than other medicinal compounds. That means that the treatments developed from his compounds will have less serious side effects, and, since the medicines will be created synthetically, they will be less costly and more readily available than drugs produced from nature.

These compounds were created through an international effort. Several years ago Dr. Miles formed a partnership with some of the professors and graduate students at Perm State University, in Perm, Siberia. The Russian team created new organic compounds and sent Dr. Miles samples of the ones that seemed most likely to affect biological structures. Dr. Miles then worked with the compounds to determine their medical value.

Currently, Dr. Miles is working with research facilities around the world-including the Orlando Regional Medical Center and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute--to determine exactly what how the compounds neutralize diseased cells. Once that process is complete UCF will contact prescription manufacturers about licensing the compounds for medicinal use.

Dr. Miles's research interests include the study of natural and synthetic organic products for the treatment of disease. He was named UCF's Distinguished Researcher of the Year in 1996 and, because of his recent success with these patents, has been appointed to the UCF Patent Committee. Dr. Miles can be reached at 407-823-2246 or hmiles@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu.

DATE
December 4, 2003

CONTACT
Dr. Howard Miles
407-823-2246
hmiles@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu

DOWNLOADS (none)

LINKS
Chemistry Dept.

PHOTOS
Click for enlargement
All sizes given in pixels

Width: 1312  Height: 2000


Width: 1398  Height: 1633


Width: 1750  Height: 1446