Strasser Lab

“We are a group of cancer researchers who are trained in cell biology, immunology, developmental biology and molecular oncology. Our team has made major contributions to the discoveries that defects in cell death can cause cancer, autoimmune disease and impair the response of malignant cells to diverse anti-cancer agents.

Our current work aims to reach a detailed understanding of the molecular control of programmed cell death and tumour suppression more generally. We exploit this knowledge to develop novel treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.”

The vision of our team is to generate the knowledge that will underpin the development of improved therapies for cancer patients.

Our early work together with other groups at WEHI showed that defects in apoptotic cell death can cause cancer or autoimmune disease and render malignant cells resistant to diverse anti-cancer agents.

Our discovery of the BH3-only proteins and the demonstration that they are critical for the initiation of apoptotic cell death directly underpinned the development of BH3 mimetic drugs, such as Venetoclax which is approved for treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and acute myelooid leukaemia.

Our group also revealed which cellular responses activated by the tumour suppressor p53, encoded by the most frequently mutated gene in human cancer, are critical to prevent the development of cancer.