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SUMMARY: Life\, death\, and the discovery of PDAR: the Pol II Degradatio
 n-dependent Apoptotic Response  - Mike Lee PhD\, Associate Professor Depa
 rtment of Systems Biology\, UMass Chan Medical School
DTSTART:20260427T113000Z
DTEND:20260427T123000Z
UID:TALK246118@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:136906
DESCRIPTION:*Talk Title:* Life\, death\, and the discovery of PDAR: the 
 Pol II Degradation-dependent Apoptotic Response \n\n*Abstract:* Many cellu
 lar functions are considered “life essential”\, but why are they actua
 lly essential? Why does a cell die\, for instance\, when transcription or 
 translation are inhibited\, and can we improve cancer therapies by develop
 ing a more complete understanding of how cellular life/death decisions are
  made? To answer these questions\, we developed a suite of new tools for s
 tudying all forms of cell death. Using these tools\, we discovered a previ
 ously uncharacterized signaling pathway that we named the Pol II Degradati
 on-dependent Apoptotic Response (PDAR). Activation of PDAR drives the leth
 ality of transcriptional inhibition\, and in the absence of PDAR\, cells w
 ill survive in the absence of transcription. This seminar will focus on ho
 w we discovered the PDAR pathway\, the contribution of PDAR to cancer ther
 apies\, and how this discovery changes our understanding of essentiality a
 nd what is (and isn’t) intrinsically stressful to cells.  \n\n*Current R
 esearch/bio:* Mike Lee is a Professor of Systems Biology at the UMass Chan
  Medical School. His research program is focused on Systems Pharmacology o
 f anti-cancer therapies\, with an emphasis on understanding the signaling 
 and regulatory mechanisms controlling drug-induced cell death. He is origi
 nally from Seattle\, Washington\, and received his academic training at th
 e University of Washington (BS\, Statistics/Cell Biology)\, the University
  of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD\, Pharmacology)\, and MIT (postdoct
 oral fellowship with Mike Yaffe).  
LOCATION:CRUK CI Lecture Theatre
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