The goals of the research consortium

• establishing the manipulation of apoptotic pathways as a viable therapeutic strategy
• exploring how apoptosis is regulated and how it can be selectively triggered to induce suicide in cancer cells while sparing normal cells.
• applies a combination of high resolution bio-imaging techniques, proteomics, cellular models, and in vivo tumor models towards:

»  understanding of the pathways that signal apoptosis in solid tumor
»  their validation as viable targets for tumour suppression or regression in animal models in vivo
»  the discovery and validation of a novel, alternative class of inhibitors that target specific protein:protein 
interaction rather than, or in addition to, enzyme activity

© CRELUX

Importantly, more than 30% of the applied budget will go to SME's that feed in expertise and capacity for chemical screening in order to ensure a rapid translation of novel screens and assays into an efficient search for specific drugs manipulation proapototic pathways.

Mounting evidence indicates that the acquired ability to resist apoptosis is a hallmark of most, and perhaps all types of cancer. As scientists learn more about how apoptosis is thwarted by cancer cells, they are also gaining a greater understanding of why many tumors are resistant to the apoptosis-inducing effects of radiation and chemotherapy.

These insights will guide efforts to overcome treatment resistance and offer important clues about new drugs that target genes and protein products in the apoptosis pathways to encourage selective cell death.