In collaboration with other scientists at the institute, members of my laboratory are unravelling the mechanisms by which members of the Bcl-2 family determine whether a cell lives or dies. Precisely how Bcl-2 restrains essential cell death mediators Bax and Bak is unclear and how Bax and Bak become activated to drive apoptosis is also uncertain. Elucidating the key steps in cell death signalling is essential for understanding how cell death is regulated physiologically.
We are actively translating the knowledge we have gained so far into efforts to target Bcl-2 or its pro-survival relatives for treating patients with cancers (e.g. leukaemias, lymphomas) and identifying potential mechanisms why such small molecule inhibitors might fail.