BH3 mimetic drugs targeting the pro-survival protein BCL-2 have shown efficacy in the clinic for the treatment of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
More recently, BH3 mimetics targeting the related BCL-2 family protein, MCL-1, have shown promise for the treatment of certain blood cancers in pre-clinical models and entered clinical trials for these cancers in 2018.
Two of the other BCL-2 pro-survival proteins, BCL-W and BFL-1/A1, are by comparison relatively understudied. We are using genetically engineered pre-clinical lymphoma models and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing of blood cancer cells to determine if drugs targeting BCL-W and BFL-1/A1 would have therapeutic potential.
Team members: Dr Sarah Diepstraten, working in collaboration with the groups of Professor Andreas Strasser and Associate Professor Marco Herold