Trinity breakthrough offers treatment for conditions

A BREAKTHROUGH in how cells “commit suicide” made by scientists at Trinity College Dublin (TCD) offers new avenues for the treatment of cancer and auto-immune conditions such as arthritis.

Smurfit professor of medical genetics at TCD Seamus Martin, who led the research group, said the discovery was an important step in understanding how cell suicide was regulated.

Prof Martin and his team found that the Bel-2 gene family played an unexpected role in regulating the process of mitochondrial division.

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell and play an important role in the decision-making process leading to cell suicide — a type of cell death often switched off in cancer.

The findings, published in Molecular Cell journal, could influence the way cancer is treated in the future.

A previous study by the TCD research group, also published in Molecular Cell in 2006, provides evidence that the Bel-2 family “double jobs” to perform two independent roles within the cell.

The scientists have managed to separate the roles played by Bel-2 family, opening up avenues for investigations into their functions within the cell.

“This discovery is an important step forward in our understanding of how cell suicide is regulated and has implications for how we aim to therapeutically manipulate the cell death machinery in disease states like cancer,” said Prof Martin.

The research was funded primarily through Science Foundation Ireland and was carried out in the molecular cell biology laboratory at TCD’s Department of Genetics.

Prof Martin said the research was a testament to the quality and international competitiveness of research being carried out in Ireland.

The TCD research team that includes Trinity PhD students Clare Sheridan, Petrina Delivani and Sean Cullen, is already internationally recognised for its work on cell suicide.