Signal transduction in disease: application of multidisciplinary approaches
Research activity covers several areas of signal transduction in the context of disease development and treatment with the theme of "Signalling via Phospholipid-derived Second Messengers in Cancer" being of primary focus for a number of years; our seminal contributions to knowledge (described in Cell 54:171 and Nature 380: 595) were in this field.
Current research topics include several key cell-signalling components: phosphoinosite-signalling enzymes (PLC), tyrosine kinase receptors (FGFR) and novel enzymes involved in posttranslational modifications (AMPylation), using multidisciplinary approaches that span from structural and synthetic biology to animal models and imaging.
Importantly, dysregulation of these cellular components has been linked to a number of diseases, notably, to different types of cancer and to immune disorders where changes affecting immune cells directly can also have indirect consequences for development of other diseases such as dementia. Therefore, we are also moving this fundamental research forward towards drug discovery.
