Regulation of Apoptosis by Caspases
Abstract
Apoptosis is a cellular suicide mechanism critical for removing cells that may be harmful or no longer needed. Abnormal apoptosis may result in cancer and neural degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Caspases are a family of cysteine proteases that play entral roles in mediating apoptosis. The goal of this idea award is to illustrate the mechanism of apoptosis regulated by caspases. In the past three years, this idea award allowed us 1) to identify an important caspase substrate, Bid, in mediating caspase signal transduction from cytoplasmic membrane to mitochondria (Li et al 1998); 2) to elucidate the functional role of a kinase, LKBl, in activating p53-dependent apoptosis (Karuman et al. 2001); 3) to develop a high throughput screen to identify small molecule inhibitors of BH3 domain mediated protein-protein interaction that are critical for Bc 1-2 family of proteins to regulate apoptosis (Degterev et al. 2001).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA400005
Entities
People
- Junying Yuan
Organizations
- Harvard College