Cancer Stress Biology Program

Program goals

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  The key goal of the Cancer Stress Biology Program is to understand the mechanisms of cellular and organismal stresses and use them to improve the outcome of existing cancer therapies and to develop new and improved treatment approaches.
• Understand the interplay between different types of stresses at the organismal level including their effect on metabolism, the immune system and tumor development and response to therapy
• Understand the mechanisms of how tumor cells can exist in constant stress, such as metabolic dysregulation, elevated level of DNA damage, disorganized chromatin, altered circadian regulation, etc.
• Develop novel cancer treatment strategies based on biophysical principles that target a key aspect of tumor cell vulnerability – existence in constant stressed conditions
• Uncover mechanisms and approaches to protect normal cells, but not tumor cells, from stresses associated with cancer treatment
• Develop novel strategies to prevent and treat cancer therapy-induced bystander injury
• Bring them to clinical fruition by facilitating interactions with clinicians and basic scientists in other programs
• Provide a training ground for these novel treatment approaches

We coordinate this research across three program themes:

• Discovery and development of new treatment approaches to target major tumor cell vulnerability – existence in permanent stress
• Effect of stress in immune system and immune modulating effects of different types of stress
• Molecular mechanisms of different types of cellular stress and their interactions

Research spotlights