Decoding cellular communications to find new therapies for cancers and neurodegenerative diseases

To stay healthy, our bodies must coordinate the functions of the different organs. The proper functioning of each organ is also the result of the coordination and communications among a large number of different cells within the organ. When these communications are disrupted, whether due to genetics or outside forces, it can lead to various diseases. In her Front Row lecture, Scripps Research Professor Xiang-Lei Yang shared her research on an ancient family of proteins that evolved new functions to allow cellular communications to keep up with the ever-increasing complexity of the organisms. She also discussed some of the promising avenues to developing therapies to restore proper cellular communications in cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.