Cellular Stress and Cell Death pathways

To advance our understanding of treatment resistance and cancer progression, we investigate how cell death pathways are modulated.

Cells are constantly exposed to various stimuli that can disrupt their homeostasis. In order to maintain their survival, cells have developed complex mechanisms to respond to different types of stress.

Our laboratory investigates cell death pathways through the use of 2D/3D models and various microscopy techniques. One of our primary research areas centers around exploring the alternative roles of BCL2 proteins in cellular physiology. Recent studies have shown that these proteins regulate multiple pathways beyond intrinsic apoptosis, including mitochondrial metabolism. Our aim is to characterize the different functions of BCL2 proteins in cancer cells, and determine their relevance in terms of treatment resistance and stress survival.

Another area of research focuses on entosis, a cell death pathway that allows cancer cells to actively invade other homotypic cancer cells. While entosis provides a survival advantage for the host cell, it selectively removes the internalized cell. Our objective is to investigate the significance of entosis and entotic cell death in the context of cancer, to identify novel stressors and stimuli that induce this process, and to discover chemical tools to modulate entosis.