Life-or-death decisions are critical for all organisms. The balance of the related biological processes determines the cell fate. Most if not all prominent human diseases are affected by the dysregulation of cell death. The mammalian cells mainly die through three types of cell death, namely apoptosis (type I), autophagy (type II) and necrosis (type III), in a programmed and regulated manner. Interestingly, emerging evidence suggest that autophagy also serves as a survival mechanism to inhibit apoptosis
and necrosis. My lab studies how these programmed cell death pathways are regulated. We emphasize on the biochemical characterization of the key steps in these pathways in mammalian cells. Utilizing biochemical and genetic approaches, we seek to identify and characterize the key regulators. My long-term goal is to biochemically reconstitute these biological processes. The knowledge will help us to identify drug-able targets and screen small-molecular compounds to interfere these activities, which should provide novel therapeutic tools to human diseases
including cancers and other aging related diseases.