TOXIN, SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION AND DRUG RESISTANCE

A second research area that we are interested in is to identify and characterize the molecular pathways and signaling events involved in controlling drug/chemical resistance development, including anticancer drug resistance. The development of organisms or cells resistant to drug/chemical is a recurring problem in medicine.

There is an important need for us to understand the mechanisms by which many important anticancer drugs work, and by which drug resistance is acquired. While it is extremely straightforward to carry out genetic screens for drug resistance in Drosophila, such screens have not been carried out to date. We will carry out genetic screens in Drosophila for resistance to several medically important anticancer drugs that are prone to develop drug resistance.

This effort, coupled with genomic and microarray analyses, should help to identify the signaling pathways through which these compounds work and are detoxified. Given the ample examples of conservation between fly and vertebrate developmental strategies, insights into the underlying logic of signal transduction pathways that give rise to chemical resistance gained from studies in Drosophila should broaden our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of drug/chemical resistance in general.