Abstract

Promoting Apoptosis To Treat Cancer

Kurt Deshayes, Senior Scientist, Early Discovery Biochemistry, Genentech

In order to survive cancer cells must overcome the mechanism multi-cell organisms have evolved for removing damaged or infected cells know as apoptosis. The seminar will outline our investigation of what controls apoptosis, how cancer cells neutralize apoptosis and the development of agents that sensitize cancer to programmed cell death. The seminar will focus on neutralizing two protein families, the Inhibitor of Apoptosis (IAP) and B-cell lumphoma-2 (Bcl-2) in order to promote apoptosis in cancer.