One FAU researcher may have accidentally discovered a cure for skin cancer – and it comes in a tube.

A few years ago, Herbert Weissbach, director of FAU’s center for molecular biology and biotechnology, and a handful of his colleagues stumbled across a mixture of agents that kill cancer cells, while leaving the other cells untouched.

“We were actually looking for compounds that protect cells against oxidative damage, (cell damage caused by oxidants or chemicals that capture electrons from other substances), and we thought we had one,” Weissbach recalls.

But they soon noticed that a mixture of agents was killing the cancer cells.

The team tested their accidental discovery on lung cancer, colon cancer and skin cancer cells and got the same result. It killed the cancer cells and left the normal cells unharmed.

Fast-forward to 2006, and FAU licenses the treatment to a commercial company, CHS Resources LLC. It’s a two-step gel that’s applied topically to the skin.

But before the company can develop and sell the product commercially, FAU’s skin cancer treatment has to pass a series of tests to prove the concept works.

The treatment is currently undergoing clinical trials at the University of Alabama’s Department of Dermatology. Researchers there are trying out the gel on pre-cancerous skin lesions, called actinic keratoses.

Weissbach says it will also have to be approved by the FDA, which is a “long process.”

In the meantime, Weissbach and his team are doing further tests. “A major focus of our next-generation therapy is to develop a selective, targeted therapy.”