Apoptosis

Cellular fate is controlled by multiple molecular pathways. The most studied is apoptosis, a form of programmed cell death used by all multicellular organisms to eliminate cells which are damaged, no longer needed or which might become a threat to the organism. This process is often deregulated in cancer cells allowing them to survive and proliferate when otherwise they should be eliminated.

BH3 mimetics

Dysfunctional apoptosis can cause or accelerate cancer development, but also underlies resistance to common cancer treatment approaches such as chemotherapy. Members of a particular family of proteins (the “BCL-2” proteins) are critical regulators of apoptosis. Recently, a new class of drugs called “BH3 mimetics” have been developed to target some BCL-2 proteins and activate apoptosis, leading to tumour cell death. One of these drugs is now being used in the clinic to treat some blood cancers, and others are under extensive investigation, including by our lab.

Autophagy

Autophagy is predominantly a process that enables cells to survive under stressful conditions such as when nutrients are in short supply. Like apoptosis, it can also become dysfunctional in cancer. Under some circumstance, proteins that regulate autophagy can also interact with those involved in apoptosis. This is a particular interest of our lab as it might have important implications for how cancer cell survive abnormally.